Advice for a car rental pick up locations in Florence and drop off in Verona

Check car rental rates on
www.autoeurope.com
select pickup
FLORENCE ALL LOCATIONS
select drop off
VERONA ALL LOCATIONS
then check where the best deal is. Generally picking up at the airport is more expensive (also requires more taxi money).
Where to return the car doesn’t make a difference, but returning at the the Verona airport would require extra effort (time and money) to get to the city center. Villafranca (the town where VRN airport is) is not exactly in Verona. The Verona station is south of the Arena, walkable distance but quite a long walk. Most city car rental offices are at the station.

Pick up at the Florence airport. Saves the hassle of driving in town. There's an easy public transit (tram I think) between the train station and the airport. You could drop at Verona airport (public transit connects to train station near town) or the train station probably. Verona Porto Nuovo train station is a bit outside the city center, so it wouldn't be too bad to drop a car. Bus connects to city center easily. I would avoid driving in either city.

Florence airport is a tram ride away from the main train station but Verona airport is a longer bus ride which is doable but I wouldn't recommend. Many car rental places are close to the Verona Porta Nouva train station and it is a quick bus or taxi into town from there. If you are arriving with bags I would recommend a cab - anywhere in the old town will be about 10e from the train station. The bus system is good and well marked but with bags in a new town the cab is cheap enough.

Have you priced the difference in drop off costs renting and returning in Florence versus Verona? Unless you are going to end up close to Verona on your drive it might be worth renting and dropping off in the same location and taking the fast train 1:30 to Verona from Florence which is about twice as fast as driving it.

Standard care rental advice - get an IDP for all drivers before leaving the states, read up on ZTLs before you go and then for each town right before you visit and add at least 25% to Google driving times in rural areas.

Verona is very pretty city, enjoy,
=Tod

Picking up at the Florence SMN station or the airport should be determined by the difference in rental cost. Picking up at the airport is generally more expensive, but not necessarily by much, depending on how many days you rent and the time of the year, so you need to evaluate for yourself.

If you stay at the Oltrarno, going to the airport from Oltrarno via tramway is not convenient if you have luggage. The walk to the station with luggage would be too long IMO. And if, because of the long walk with luggage, you need a taxi to go to the station to pick up the tramway, then you might as well use the taxi all the way to the airport as the taxi fare difference would be only about 15 euro extra at most, also considering you use the pronoun "we" therefore I assume there would more of one person sharing that taxi.

Notwithstanding all of the above considerations, you should also consider returning the car to Florence and take the train to Verona, as the drive is boring and 3.5 hours long, while the train would be half as long. If you decide that way, then I would probably return the car at the SMN station. I know that entails driving in Florence's city streets, but driving to the station is not so difficult and I have provided detailed instructions previously, which you can search using the 'search' box above. Another option, could be to return the car at some other location, such as Arezzo, if you happen to go that way in search of hill towns.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I am exploring all the options that you suggested in terms of price, drivability (for my husband), and time. We want to maximize our time actually enjoying the towns rather than being in a car.