driving from Florence to Rome

We lived in Rome for several years and I shuddered to drive in the city. WE did not own a car, merely used sharing services and one day while on an errand I hit a wall and said NEVER AGAIN!

In your case I would pick up a car either at the Florence Airport or in Via Borgo Ognissanti, but it does depend on which company you rent from. I would drip it off in Orvieto and take the train to Rome for the most stress-free arrival.

Rent from Hertz and you can turn the car in at Orvieto. They have an office on Sansovino which is about a 2 mile cab ride from the train station in Florence. They'll give you a map that gets you out of town without getting close to the central city ZTL.

The Hertz office in Orvieto is just across the parking lot from the train station, and it's then a 70 minute train ride into Rome Termini. Orvieto's also a great hilltown to visit. We drove down from Siena, and the roads were great--4 lanes and interstate quality.

Florence is in Tuscany so where are you driving for two nights?

I will be staying in Castelnuovo dell'Abate for 2 nights.
Would you say driving in rome is equivalent or worse than driving in NYC?

Adding to and agreeing with David’s suggestion of the Hertz location on Via del Sansovino, we rented through Autoeurope and picked up there. Four years ago, the very helpful and nice staff just told us to follow the green or blue signs to Siena….nice to know they have maps now lol! As he said, it’s very easy to access either the A1 autostrada, or you can drive the SR222 (Chiantigiana/Chianti Road), which we chose rather than the freeway experience. Have a wonderful trip!

Thanks for the responses!
I looked up Hertz from Florence - Via del Sansovino and this locations appears to be closed :( is there a second best option?

Dani,
In my opinion, driving in Rome is far worse than any US city I have driven intro Washington, DC to Los Angeles to San Francisco. I have not driven in NYC since the 70s so cannot compare. Consider motorbike buzzing around you as they split lanes and hard to read signage along with tailgaters. Do you read Italian or would you have a navigator to help you?

I grew up learning to drive in NYC, the Brooklyn docks was where I learned cobblestones and truck evasion, and 7th Avenue in the Garment District was where I learned man-pulling-trolley evasion. The rest was learned on Long Island.

In NYC people drive crazy (all the better for learning in) but streets and avenues all pretty much stay the same width and the same number of lanes, and, except for cabs, mostly people stay in the lanes and obey the traffic lights. Lots of horn action but pretty much predictable driving.

I have also driven in Rome. The place, for a Rome driving virgin, is nutso. Cobblestones and potholes, buses everywhere, motorcycles (motorinos) drive wrong way on one way streets, in the wrong lane on two way streets, on the sidewalks, weaving in and out, and traffic lights are pretty decorations for them. Parking is crazy so people don't just double park like in NYC, they park anywhere and everywhere they can notch out enough room for their vehicle. And then there are the pedestrians.

And if you go south, Naples ramps it up another level yet.

Nobody has yet mentioned in this thread all the other things you need to be aware of driving in Italy. If you don't know the acronyms it is worth finding a good guide to driving in Italy, complete with images of the signs you will see or you may have a mailbox full of expensive letters some time after you get home. Be familiar with the way Bus Lanes work, ZTL, TUTOR, IDP, GRA.

I drive often in Italy (not in Rome, Milan or Naples, and Florence just has far too many ZTLs for me) and love it. I took the time to learn the rules and try to drive with my local head on so I am predictable to the other drivers as they are to me. I've never had an issue.

My father-in-law, who was Italian, rented a car on a visit to Italy in the 60's. He needs to drop it off near the Piazza del Populo, but got caught in the traffic circling the fountain. After multiple laps, he put the car in park and walked to the car rental office and told them where to pick up the car.
We had a similar experience in 1984 when we were dropping our rental off at Fiumincino. There was absolutely nowhere to leave the car, so my husband parked it and walked the keys over to the rental kiosk.
Traffic has only increased. Take advantage of public transportation and the fast trains.

Where in Tuscany are you going? It might be easier to just return the car to Florence and take the train to Rome.

If Sansovino is closed in Florence, you can always pick another location--or the airport.

But I warn you that airport or train station pickups often come with taxes or surcharges vs. center city locations. In Florence and other big Italian cities, you've just got to be careful to avoid the ZTL zones where only commercial traffic is allowed.

Another issue is driving the speed limit in big cities. Radar cameras are often found in cities, and they don't give you 1 kph leeway. There's one on the causeway going out to Venice that got me for 2 mph over the 35 mph speed limit. They wanted payment wire transferred to their city checking account in Euros. Just be careful.

Nigel, I think your response should be required reading for anyone even contemplating driving in Rome! Perfectly spot on!

I am a seasoned driver with good nerves and excellent parking skills, but one particular errand-running trip nearly caused me a nervous breakdown! We took taxis from that point on when the bus would not do!

I was about to say that if you return the car at one of the offices near Roma Tiburtina station, it's not that bad... but then I saw that this was your first time driving outside the USA.
In that case, return in Orvieto.

Dani, just a general note about driving in Europe...it's much more challenging the first time than it seems. I describe it as a parallel universe. The roads look pretty much the same, but when you start driving everything is different. Go ahead and get your feet wet with it, but avoid high traffic environments as suggested by other posters.
Personal story about this...on hubby's first trip to Europe we had credits on different airlines so we were going to fly separately, him (non German speaker) to Frankfurt and me to Brussels. He looked at the map and was determined to arrive in Frankfurt, rent a car, and pick me up in Brussels 4 hours later. We argued about it for days with me telling him this plan was unwise, and him insisting that he could do it because he had done many similar trips in the US. I finally put my foot down and just said no. We ended up flying together to Brussels and rented the car with me diving away from the airport, an area that was familiar to me. He sat in stunned silence for about the first 10 minutes of the drive. Then he thanked me profusely for stopping him from his original plan because he figured that he would have spent most of his vacation just trying to find Belgium.

....Would you say driving in rome is equivalent or worse than driving in NYC? ...... Worse, much worse because you don't know the local driving customs, expectations, etc. In some areas it may be perfectly acceptable to drive the wrong way on a one-way street. And you do not instantly recognize all the street signs or know where to look to find them. And the final note, do you have all of the max insurance on the rental? And the IDP??

FINAL ANSWER: Drop in Orvieto and train to Rome.

I describe it as a parallel universe.

Perfectly put, Linda! Even after years, I won’t drive alone in any country. I need someone in the RH seat to navigate, read signs, etc.

amazing. thank you everyone for your responses! chuckled at some of the stories!
is it easy to find a train from orvieto to rome on the same day or would u advise booking in advance?

Alternate opinion follows:

I am doing the same rental car drive as you. I rented from enterprise in Florence. Their pickup location is Via Maso Finiguerra, 31, Florence. That location seems very close (maybe half a kilometer?) to the Ponte Amerigo Vespucci over the Arno and quickly out of the city. Will do back roads through Chianti region to Montepulciano where our hotel has reserved parking just outside the ZTL. Doing day trip by car to Assisi.

Returning car to enterprise at Rome Termini. It seems the return spot is the back side of the rail station in a parking garage area. Address is 55 via Marsala. So I think this plan will avoid the “worst” driving.

I have no doubt this will not be stress free. But I want to experience all Italy has to offer the good and not so good. Ask me a year from now and I very well may be in the “never again” camp. But I’m going for it.

I believe several rental car companies use these locations so you may have a choice.

You can check the train schedule from Orvieto to Rome on your planned travel day here: https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html. Almost all the trains stop at Roma Tiburtina; many go on to the main station, Roma Termini. If it's not too important to you which station you arrive at, chose Roma** (Tutte le Stazione)** as your destination. Trenitalia will not recognize "Rome".

Most of the trains are regionals with no assigned seats; you can buy your ticket shortly before departure. Be sure to stick it in the little validation machine for the date/time stamp. The 12:17 PM and 2:13 PM departures are InterCity trains. Tickets for those are specific to the train you have chosen and include an assigned seat. If you miss the train, the ticket is worthless.

Orvieto has a lovely historic center; if you can spare at least a few hours there, hop on the funicular near the Orvieto train station for the trip up the hill. This website (unfortunately not dated, as so many are) indicates there is a convenient luggage-storage point near the station: https://www.orvietoviva.com/en/orvieto-train-station/