Tuscany car road trip - round trip from Florence or one-way Rome to Florence?

We arrange our cars by calling up Autoeurope [toll free]; get zero-deductible collision. They will tell you what size vehicle you need, given the volume of luggage.

I would pick up a car in Rome from Hertz on Via Sardegna, drive about 2.5 hours to the Val d'Orcia:

https://www.wanderingitaly.com/maps/valdorcia.html
We like staying in Montepulciano, the Locanda San Francesco; seven rooms with valley views at the end of the main drag with parking on site and good restaurants down the street. After Volterra, you can return the car in downtown Florence at the Garage Europa on Borgo Ognissanti. As seen on a google map, you proceed in a northerly direction crossing the Ponte Amerigo Vespucci, then a couple of blocks and a left on Borgo Ognissanti. Approaching the bridge the ZTL is to the east, so no chance of violating it. ZTLs explained here:

http://driventoit.blogspot.com/

It is inadvisable to leave anything of value in a car when parked, so the safest option is driving straight to a hotel and dropping bags off before doing any sightseeing.

The driver will need an IDP from the local AAA office.

For suggestions as to what to see and do in the small towns, use this:

https://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en

Thanks N_Kingdom. I had used a mid-sized SUV (Toyota C-HR as per Hertz receipt) last time on a similar journey while driving through Spain in Andalucia in the White Hill towns (Frigiliana, Ronda & Arcos) - picking up at Granada dropping off at Seville. It had worked well for two 25 inch rolling bags and two carryon size (20 inch) rolling bags. I think the journey through Tuscany is somewhat similar - so that car size should work and I should be able to handle the traffic/parking as long as I park in parking lots (at hotels or day trip destination) and walk rest of the way.

What you mentioned is option 2. Did you do any town hopping where you stayed for only 1-2 nights in each town? Example: 2 nights in Val D'Orcia area (Montepulciano/Pienza), one night in Siena, one night in Volterra and one night in say Pisa or Lucca. That is the thing I think may be hard to do with luggage (option 2). With option 2, I think I may have to have two bases - 1 base somewhere close to Siena (for Montepulciano, Pienza and for Siena) and another base in Volterra (for Volterra/San Gimignano/Pisa).

"Did you do any town hopping where you stayed for only 1-2 nights in each town? Example: 2 nights in Val D'Orcia area (Montepulciano/Pienza), one night in Siena, one night in Volterra and one night in say Pisa or Lucca. "

Absolutely not. One-night stays are very inefficient, just an afternoon and evening. Also consider that checking in and out of hotels with a family is more fouled up than with a couple. You have five nights, three say in the Val d'Orcia; two up by Volterra. Note that two nights yield only one full day. Search hotels on booking.com. Lucca or Pisa are easy train day trips from Florence.

Outside of Pienza is the farmhouse La Fonte, which has an excellent restaurant and a pool.

OK - thanks. I assume you meant to say one night stays are inefficient?

I would do the road trip from Rome to Florence, returning the car in Florence upon arrival.
Using www.AutoEurope.com choose the smallest size vehicle that would allow comfort for 4 passengers with luggage (probably a mid size).
Try to pack as lightly and efficiently as possible because while you are driving, big luggage won’t be a big problem if your car is large enough, but excessive luggage will not be fun to travel by train from Florence to Venice (you must carry your own luggage aboard and place it on the overboard rack) or to reach your hotel in Venice from the station, either on foot or on boats. As Rick Steves often says there are two types of travelers:
1. Those who pack light, and
2. Those who wished had packed light.

Ciao! We’re also starting to plan out a 2 week trip to Italia with our 2 kids (twins, 7 years old). At the moment, we are planning on a trip starting from Rome, and moving up the county to Milan. Another option on traveling to the smaller Tuscan towns is by train. That way there’s no need or liability of a car. We plan on spending the bulk of our trip in Florence, then using the train to go to towns like Siena and Assisi. Rick has that rail map for it here.

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/italy-rail-passes

Disregard most of what is written on that RS site, especially the shameful reference to Raileurope, an overpriced ticket agent.
Buy no passes, tickets from the actual operators of the trains [amazingly he does not mention these]:

https://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

https://www.italotreno.it/en [private competitor with lower fares on some routes]

With reference to regional trains, there are no advance purchase discounts, but with the exception of Liguria and Trenord, tickets purchased online are good for 4 hours from the selected time on the selected day.

Photography Buff.

I have done a modified version of your trip where we rented in Florence, drove through Tuscany and then dropped our car off in Siena and took the train to Rome. The drop off in Siena was easy, but inefficient as we had to change trains, so if I had to do it again would have dropped off closer to Rome. The Option 2 you have listed here seams to be the least backtracking.

For our trip, we packed light, everyone had 21 inch luggage. but had six people, and we could barely hold the luggage in the car, it bled over into the back seats. We rented a mini-van through Auto Europe which is our go-to-place to rent in Europe. They typically have the best prices (our actual mini-van was from Hertz) and their service is great, including if you get into an accident or have tickets. Note these issues with accidents and tickets did not happen in Italy, but it gave me peace of mind to know that the company has great support to help through those issues.

Loved driving through the Tuscan countryside, the only downside with the mini-van is that parking can be a challenge in some of the small towns.

Sandy

I don't think you mentioned whether the treasures of Florence are part of this trip. Do you plan to make any shorter stops on a Rome-Florence drive, like Orvieto, or Etruscan tombs, or whatever? Side issue: Unsafe visible luggage during such a stop, but I meant to bring up the issue of stops, rather than safety. I don't consider the superhighway trips to be that scenic, and you are relying on the local tour to provide beautiful small local roads.

We drove from Civitavecchia to Sinalunga, with nice stops in Viterbo and Orvieto. We drove back to Rome FCO airport five nights later, and spent the night at the Hilton for an early departure. Except for Siena, we visited two to four towns a day. I'm not bragging, or endorsing death-march tourism. I'm simply alluding to the fact that a town like Sant'Angelo in Colle or even Cortona or Castiglione del Lago does not require a meal or a long stop to say that you "saw it." San G or Orvieto can't be done that fast, no argument. Driving is slow, in Tuscany.

In a normal June, I would think that Tuscany would be busy enough that you might have trouble leaving luggage in storage at a hotel. Are there pure storage companies in Florence?

I don't really understand the difference between your two plans if you are not using the car for something other than Rome-Florence transportation. Is "one night stops" a part of the drive to Florence? I agree that one-night stops are a real waste of time anywhere, but in Tuscany, there are always more 30-60 minute daytrips available than you could possibly achieve from any nice town. You do have to plan carefully to do, say, three stops in a day, with a gourmet lunch that requires advance booking and pre-payment. But it's a very efficient form of (with car) tourism.

Thanks Roberto & SandyO. Your feedback really helps.

About 25 inch and the trains:

As I said late 2019, we did a 2+ week Spain trip with two of us carrying 25 inch rollers and two having 21 inch rollers. We did several train journeys, one internal plane journey and one rental car journey. Since they were rollers with 2 wheels they handle the cobblestones pavements better than spinners with 4 wheels - and importantly the wheels do not take up more space. So they are actually smaller than most 25 inch and 21 inch bags. In fact the 25 inch is almost the same size as my old 22 inch Samsonite carryon bags which these days are an inch too big because of the wheels. And they did fit a mid size car (Toyota C-HR) - but likely would not have fit in a smaller car than that. In the trains, I was able to fit the 25 inch comfortably in the rack at the entrance of the compartment. But we could have also fit on the overhead compartments on trains - as one of these reviews for the bag indicates:

Just got back from a 14 day trip to Italy where I used this bag and it was great. This size of bag was big enough for all of my stuff but was also small enough that it fits in the overhead compartments of all the European trains (or at least in Italy).

I personally have to have a nice tripod in my roller bag which takes up some useful space from the bag - so a 21 inch bag is impractical. Most of photography is during travel and one of the reasons I like to travel is photography and that needs a tripod for early morning or night shots - so I cannot travel lighter than that.

"...drove through Tuscany and then dropped our car off in Siena and took the train to Rome."

Very poor train time Siena to Rome; the best place is Chiusi, Avis closest to the station,

@Tim from NJ:

I don't think you mentioned whether the treasures of Florence are part of this trip.

Florence is not included in these 5 nights - it will be a separate 3 nights.

In a normal June, I would think that Tuscany would be busy enough that you might have trouble leaving luggage in storage at a hotel. Are there pure storage companies in Florence?

Yes - there are storage lockers.

I don't really understand the difference between your two plans if you are not using the car for something other than Rome-Florence transportation. Is "one night stops" a part of the drive to Florence?

Option 1 (most luggage stored in a locker with Florence round trip): will have one-night stops. Option 2 (luggage with us in the car) we will avoid one-night stops and instead use couple of bases for 2-3 days and use day trips. Most likely one stop in the Val D'Orcia area and other in Volterra.

I agree that one-night stops are a real waste of time anywhere, but in Tuscany, there are always more 30-60 minute daytrips available than you could possibly achieve from any nice town. You do have to plan carefully to do, say, three stops in a day, with a gourmet lunch that requires advance booking and pre-payment. But it's a very efficient form of (with car) tourism.

I agree - especially with option 1. With option 1, because we will be having only one backpack each, we can even use a smaller car and will be even more efficient.

Either option works fine without specifics, but why not pick which towns/areas you most want to see and then decide? For example, if you have no interest in southern Tuscany, then it probably makes more sense to take the train to Florence and do a loop, say around Siena. But, if you read up and decide a more linear route captures your interest, you could for example drive to Pitigliano, drop luggage, stay a couple nights and explore all of the Etruscan sites in the vicinity, then drive on to somewhere like Montepulciano, stay the remainder, do the same, then drive to Florence and drop the car.
I always determine how much driving I wish to do per day, pick out specific places I want to see, then formulate the route.

Thanks for your thoughts @valadelphia - they make a lot of sense.

After more thought, I have decided to go for option 2 (Rome to Florence one way) with the plan to spend 2 nights at one base and 3 nights at another base. I have modified itinerary to make it not completely a Tuscany road trip: 2 nights at a pseudo Agriturismo just outside Pienza (Val D'Orcia area) and 3 nights in Manarola (Cinque Terre).

So will pick up the car from Rome, use it for the next 2 and half days to travel to/explore/from the Val D'Orcia area and drop it off at La Spezia before heading out to Manarola.

"...then drive to Florence and drop the car. "

Garage Europa, on Via Borgo Ognissanti for Hertz and Avis, a couple of blocks from the Firenze SM Novella station. Will turn left proceeding in a northerly direction to the Ponte Amerigo Vespucci. Going no further east the ZTL will be avoided.

@N_Kingdom: You said in your first post:

I would pick up a car in Rome from Hertz on Via Sardegna, drive about 2.5 hours to the Val d'Orcia

Is there a particular reason why you are suggesting Via Sardegna location and not the one at Termini station? Both seem equidistant to my apartment rental which is between Trevi Fountain & Pantheon - so either should be fine but wanted to know if there was a particular advantage for the Via Sardegna location.