1st time to Italy - help on car v. public trans in Tuscany

Rent a car for all the reasons you list! Perhaps public transportation works in some areas but not well in Tuscany! Yes, renting cars in Italy is more expensive than in nearby countries. We have rented cars in France and Switzerland that we used in Italy to avoid the high prices.
Due to your asthma, you should rent a car to control your environment more easily.Wear a mask! Do what YOU need to do. I am wearing masks again in the US.
You should print out the European road signs and study them before your trip. I usually tape a copy of them on the rental car dashboard. Rick Steve’s guide books used to always include these road signs in the back of his guide books. Otherwise, goggle them, print them out.
If you have luggage in your rental car’s trunk, back into parking places in garages to deter theft. We have never been robbed in 10 independent trips to Europe. South America was another story.
Relax and enjoy your trip. Tuscany is so lovely.

re (1): with 2 people driving isn't hard. One navigates and the other drives. It's been a few years since we've driven in Italy, back then we brought our own GPS. These days a cellphone with a data plan probably is just as good. The signage isn't difficult, if anything signage listing nearby towns in rural Italy is better than the US. Obey all posted speed limits. Be sure you understand what a ZTL is. As for theft, don't drive around with your luggage if you can avoid it and don't leave anything visible in the car. This is why we like using a town as a base for a few days at a time with our luggage in the hotel and just doing daytrips. If you do have your luggage in the car then never open the trunk in a parking lot; if you need a jacket or whatever pull over a mile before your destination and get whatever you need.

re (3): never had a problem with crime on transit nor seen one. Nor read/heard it's an issue for that matter. Where have you been reading about problems? Anyway with 2 people one person can watch the bags while the other goes to the restroom. I recently completed a few weeks in Italy using trains and a few buses, wore a mask 100% of the time on public transit, nobody said a word or pointed or did anything to indicate they took objection. Italy is not the same as certain parts of the US, I'll leave it at that.

IMO your choice boils down to convenience vs cost. For Tuscany (and I hope you visit Umbria as well) I'd recommend a car. If you do decide to rent then use an agency like autoeurope and get all the insurance they offer for your peace of mind.

Hi,

It perhaps might be best to plan out where you want to go and what you want to see before deciding on a method of transport. We have used a combo of trains and rental cars on our trips to Italy. Trains are good for city to city and rental cars are for exploring the countryside. Driving and parking in a city is more trouble than it’s worth. Train travel can be planned out in advance. Driving is not difficult if you have a gps of some sort. Also you might want to fly open jaws into one city and out of another which will save you backtracking. Put together an itinerary and get back to us and we can help you put this trip together.

In Florence itself you don’t need or even want a car. Take a taxi from/to the airport to/from the hotel of your choice in the city center, Public transportation in Florence is very safe but you won’t need it either. The city center is small and walkable.

Some towns are easily (and very safely) visited by train or bus from Florence on a day trip, namely: Siena (better by bus), Arezzo, Pistoia, Lucca, Pisa, just to name the most famous provincial capitals of Tuscany with direct train link to Florence

For visiting other smaller towns and countryside in Tuscany a rental car is the most convenient way. Cost vary greatly depending on season but for two people all you need is a compact car or even an economy (which however doesn’t usually come with auto transmission). In high season (July) in Florence I can usually find a small compact SUV for about $400+ a week, full zero deductible coverage included. I use a broker called AutoEurope. For two weeks, considering that Florence will take 3 days of your time, and maybe more if you plan to visit the above mentioned towns by train, all you need is a one week rental or so.

You can find all the info on driving rules and signs online, just Google ROAD SIGNS IN ITALY and also ZONA TRAFFICO LIMITATO. Observe the speed limits since they have a lot of speed cameras. Signs in Europe are based on the international sign system therefore they are based on symbols which are very intuitive, no need to speak the language.

You need a car to explore Tuscany. I suggest renting one in Florence and driving along the SR222 Chiantigiana Road to Siena: https://lovefromtuscany.com/scenic-drives-in-tuscany/. Sleep in Siena’s old town and use that as your base to visit Pienza and Montepulciano by taking the Val d’Orcia route. The next day drive to San Gimignano and Volterra. All drives offer breathtaking views.

You can always shop around for the best rental car prices. FYI: Governmental regulations will require that you purchase the insurance from the rental company, and the rates are regulated. But you don't have to take their personal goods theft insurance they try to tack on you.

Spend a few days seeing Florence, and then pickup the rental car. The rental agent can give you directions on how to leave town without hitting any ZTL's.

We love staying out in the countryside in an agriturismo and doing day trips from there to places like San Gimignano, Volterra and Siena. You'll find the roads in Tuscany to be well paved and well marked if not just a little crooked and hilly. Roads are not too congested, and easy to travel through.

Don't worry about your safety when traveling the backroads of Tuscany and Italy. Northern Italy is a safe place to travel.

We picked our car up in Florence and turned it in at Hertz' office in Orvieto. The train station is just across the parking lot, and it's just a short 70 minute train ride into Rome Termini.

Thank you all for your comments. We do have a draft itinerary, but then realized depends entirely on if we are ok to drive - thus the need to make that decision first, BEFORE we even bother getting excited and making plans that turn out impossible with public transportation. The plan so far is to fly into Florence and either rent car there itself, or use the train as far as possible, then rent when really needed and do a loop around Tuscany and a bit of Umbria by car, returning the rental in the last town we'd need it for and take the train back to Florence, thereby cutting the cost (and stress) of driving a bit. However, that entire plan rests on whether or not we think we can handle driving. If we decide against it, that will change a lot because things will have to be eliminated that we can't reach by train. We've done a LOT of road trips here in the US, but I've never had to drive in other countries I've visited, and the cost isn't such a factor when we travel here as I own a car. Will be asking your kind advice on our itinerary in another thread once we make our decision about driving :)

You can take day trips by train from Florence to Pisa one day and Lucca another day.
You can also take a direct bus from Florence to Siena (1h 15m) and rent a car in Siena. This means you would skip the drive on the Chiantigiana Road but the drive through Valle d'Orcia (SR2 then left on SP146) will make up for it. The drive up to San Gimignano is hilly and the drive from San Gimignano to Volterra is a lush forest.

In addition to the rental car expense (including insurance), stressing about speed limits, ZTL zones, and leaving luggage in the car, there is another consideration. Even teaming up with one driving and one navigating, both will to miss out on a lot of scenery. And I say that based on experience -- or maybe we're just too old to multitask that way anymore. Perhaps a combination of using public transit (both rail and bus) and hiring a local driver a time or two or three should be considered. Not sure, but I think a local driver a few times might be less expensive than renting a car. That's what we'd do. Just food for thought.

If you know how to drive in America you can drive in Tuscany. Driving in a big city is more challenging if you are not used to city driving but the more rural areas are easy.

There are a few infos that may help you in the planning stage. Florence has toll highways to Bologna, Pistoia/Lucca/Viareggio, Arezzo/Orvieto/Rome; these highways are usually fast to drive. Motorways from Florence to Pisa/Livorno and Siena are a bit slower; no tolls, but the carriageways are a bit narrower than toll highway standards. All the other ordinary roads in Tuscany mostly follow ancient routes and may get endlessly curvy, especially those heading to Siena from north and south; do not plan to drive too much as it could get tiring after a couple hours.

In 20+ trips to Europe, my husband and I rented a car one time: for four days in Tuscany. One year we stayed in Montepulciano and found that we couldn't visit all the smaller towns we would like to see without a car (or way more time). So in another year, also staying in Montepulciano, we took the train to Chiusi and then rented (and returned) a car there. This worked out well for us.

I suggest that you crunch the numbers. Two weeks is 14 days. You lose one on the transatlantic flight. You also can’t count your departure day as available for much. If you visit the towns,recommended by Roberto, by train, you would be down to 4 days. It’s easy to check the car rental cost for that period. Go to the AutoEurope website and do a dummy booking. Don’t forget to add in the extra insurance. Gasoline is very expensive in Italy, but the cars are very fuel-efficient. Maybe hiring a driver for a day or two and/or doing an organized day trip or two will be better options (and more relaxing) than driving yourselves.

Planning a trip is usually an iterative process. What you start out with may have to be adjusted based on what you learn while planning. You are very smart to be starting the planning now.

Below are 3 sources I think would help with the car rental vs. public transportation dilemma. Particularly devour anything said about driving and other transportation in Italy.

1. From RS Travel Tips on this very website, the Transportation section: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation If this is your first trip to Europe, all the Travel Tips sections would help both you and your daughter learn about things you didn't know that you need to know. Based on your safety concerns, the Travel Tips Theft & Scams section is calling your name.

2. Gemüt.com's website on car rental and driving: https://www.gemut.com/ Be sure to download the free brochure titled, "What You Need to Know About Renting & Driving a Car in Europe." The pdf is dated 2023, so it should be very current. Fortunately, Gemüt is actually in Oregon, so you can call and talk to a real person. No one can predict costs for next summer, but these guys have been in the business for over 35 years, so they might be able to provide some educated guesses.

3. For train travel information, the Man in Seat 61 is hard to beat. This is a link directly to his "Beginner's Guide to Train Travel in Italy": https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm

Between our first trip to Europe together in 2009 and the last one in 2014 after which my husband decided he didn’t want to go anymore, he did all the driving and I was the navigator. But I always got an IDP (International Driving Permit) from AAA anyway in case something happened to my husband and I needed to drive. Assuming your daughter can drive and is old enough for the car rental agency to do so in Italy, she should get one, too.

Since 2014, I've traveled solo (like I did on my first trip in 1977 and when I lived and worked in Germany in the early 80's) for all or at least part of my trips to Europe including Italy. There are many discussions on the forum where participants provide safety advice and their own experiences. Noodling around this RS website will get you to them. So long as you both take responsibility and pay attention to your surroundings, the fact that there will be 2 of you to watch each other's back puts y'all way ahead of the many solo female travelers here.

This is a classic "US tourist" post. For the US tourist, car = freedom. But freedom for what?

The notion of "going whereever you want to go" suggests that you have not planned the trip. Exactly where do you want to go? Is a car needed? Usually not.

We were in N Italy, including some of Tuscany, in 2022. We took trains from Milan, Ravenna, Padova, Turino, Pisa, Siena, and then a bus to Florence. We did not spend time looking for parking. We did not get a ZTL ticket. We did not get a speeding ticket.

As to "theft on public transport", this is just not common. Maybe in Athens (where I lost E50), but not much in Italy, if you keep your wits about you, and stay alert. The trains are often modern, with great comfortable seats. There is plenty of room to move around. Masks were required, but seldom enforced.

As to travel in summer, I'd rethink this. If you have the ability to travel in April-May or September-October, I would go then. Summer is crazy-time in Italy. There were mob scenes everywhere.

As to costs, when you rent a car for the entire time, what you are doing is 1) renting the car 2) renting parking 3) paying to store your rented car in expensive parking that you must find while driving. In addition, rental agencies increasingly attempt to extort customers into the "all-inclusive waiver" which adds huge money to the rental.

We love the trains and buses. Simple, easy, no tickets.

If you are interested in visiting the Tuscan countryside, a car is a must. Whether you need to rent one depends on your desires: hiring drivers/ tours from Siena for a day or two separate days would let you cover quite a bit of ground.

But if you want to be thorough in your explorations and go wherever you please, then yes, you need a car.
I do not find rental rates to be that high in Tuscany vs. neighboring countries, but it is easy to check prices. The roads are twisty and can be bumpy, the lack of acceleration lanes on some highways can be surprising, some drivers can be aggressive, but after maybe 1-2 hours of adjustment, I ultimately find that driving through the rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside is an absolute joy.

Thanks to everyone for your advice on this, it's helped a lot as your comments have mirrored our own thoughts on this and also provided some additional points, so we're going to aim for a bit of both on this trip. I have traveled outside the US, just not in Europe and, as explained before, age and health have complicated things recently, so I'm not such a carefree lass anymore. We'd love to have the freedom to just backpack and take trains everywhere! However, you've confirmed that a car is the way to go for the Tuscan countryside if we want to see many of the things on our list.
Many thanks.

However, you've confirmed that a car is the way to go for the Tuscan countryside if we want to see many of the things on our list.
I also highly recommend you use an agriturismo as your home base. We had a wonderful experience in Tuscany. We found an agriturismo central to the areas we wanted to explore and made short day trips from there. Nothing was more than 45 minutes from where we stayed.

Stay in Florence for three days, then head to the heart of Tuscany.

We just came back from a trip in Tuscany and we rented a car, it was my husband and me, but I do not see any additional safety risk for two females. The freeway's in Italy are really well maintained and there are well lit and heavily visited rests stops called Autogrills that will have a clean/free restroom, snacks and gasoline, a true rest stop. I agree with others who said one drives and one navigates, we used google maps and that lady got us everywhere (We landed in Milan and drove to Tuscany). We watched You-tube videos explaining the different signage and how toll roads work and the different colored parking spaces. Some of our very favorite days were driving to a small Tuscan town, parking in the outskirts, walking up and just wandering around, seeing what we could get into and enjoying fabulous meals and wine. What a memorable journey for you and your daughter. By the way, we were very scared/nervous about driving in Italy but we would 100% do it again but we also purchased bumper to bumper insurance and we did get an Automatic, they drive on the same side as in the US so that was nice. Note: if you do plan on doing some wine drinking, Italy has a very low DUI limit (like one glass of wine from my understanding) so I highly recommend while you are in Florence to join an all day winery tour. We used Presitge rent and our tour also included lunch, and it was fabulous. The pours were very generous, I think we drank about 11 glasses of wine over the course of the day...and yes I fell asleep on the ride back to Florence.

hey hey ksmomma
don’t forget to get your IDP (permit) to drive in italy. AAA.com, $25, two passport photos, for each driver, good for one year.
tuscany is a big area, decide where to go, summer will be HOT!! Get air conditioning, turismo’s may have minimum days to rent, a pool is nice, restaurant on property or meals available, offers tours to wineries because of penalty to drinking & driving.
in Lucca is cucina-Italiana.com
offers cooking classes and accommodations, frattoriaaldotto.it (bus or taxi right outside Lucca) for wine tasting, tour to garfagnana over devil’s bridge, train to pistoia.com or cinque terre viareggio for walk on boardwalk and lunch
In florence, educated-traveler.com/wine windows of florence
small wine windows of grand palaces from long ago.
tasteatlas.com/bomboloni
tasty Italian donuts
mercatocentrale.com
central market and restaurants, cooking class. a fun place to roam around. sit at outside cafe with wine/appetizers to people watch, fun activity, walk around for gelato. we found a pedicab in florence central to do a small one hour tour for us, tipped him well.
go have fun, enjoy so much, we stopped in off the main streets for meals. loved their osso buco and bolognese plus charcuterie platters.
aloha

Have a great time! I’ve stayed in 30+ cities just traveling by train and an occasional bus, but if you want to rent a car for part of your trip, do it!

My husband & I rented one in England for a few days of our trip. Although he was very glad to return it and ride trains again, I enjoyed the chance to have us stay in unique lodging that wouldn’t have been practical by train for those few days.