For an upcoming vacation at an agriturismo in Tuscany, we were planning to take the train from Rome to Chiusi and renting a car from the Hertz location in Chiusi. I saw that it is right across the street from the train station. Our vacation will end with a few nights in Florence, and a flight home from that city. I thought we would return the car in Chiusi and travel to Florence by train, but the train does not go to Florence from Chiusi. The next plan was to drive the car to Florence and return it to a Hertz location there. We will not need or want a car in Florence. Then I saw that the Hertz location in Chiusi closes at noon on Saturdays, and our arrival from Rome will not be until late afternoon. I also heard that most of their cars will be standard transmission, so if we want an automatic, we may be out of luck. I also read a couple of not-so-positive reviews about the customer service at the Hertz location in Chiusi. So I sought advice from the host of our agriturismo, and she is suggesting that we take the train from Rome to the Terontola-Cortona station and rent a car from an local Italian rental agency there called Il Girasole. She said that they will have more automatic transmission cars than most other rental agencies, they speak excellent English, and they will provide us with wonderful customer service. We will have to return the car there at the end of our week at the agriturismo, but we can take a train from Terontola-Cortona to Florence. So this was the plan, but now I am reading (on these boards) that it is highly recommended that visitors to Europe stick with the "big three" car rental agencies of Hertz, Avis and Europcar. The reason is that these companies have locations all over, and if your car breaks down, you want to be close to help and a replacement car. So now I'm not sure what to do. I may seek advice from a U.S. agency, Gemut.com, and use them to book our car rental. Check them out. You will be impressed at their free downloadable report on renting a car in Europe, a 16 page guide telling you everything you could possibly need to know, with all kinds of helpful tips. I will be interested to see if any other people who reply to this post have used Il Girasole for their car rental.
