Just back from a 2 week trip to NW Italy and Haute-Savoie. We rented a car at MXP through Hertz via AutoEurope (full insurance). At this point, I would say I am very happy with the experience. There were 3 of us traveling. We had a Fiat 500L. Plenty of room for our 3 smallish suitcases and small carry-ons. We felt the car was plenty roomy for us. I'm 6ft tall and felt the car had excellent head and legroom driving the car - especially for a small car. Hertz was efficient and friendly when picking up and dropping off the car.
We purposely rented a smaller car knowing we'd be in smaller towns and villages with narrow streets. I do not regret doing so at all. The car had its limitations. That is, lack of pickup once in gears 4-6. Not really an issue. I just learned what the car could and couldn't do and drove accordingly. Gas mileage seemed good. The car handled very well. We used Waze to help navigate and felt it did a pretty good job. I also familiarized myself ahead of time with the street signs and especially ZTLs.
All in all, the driving went pretty smoothly. Italian drivers overall were okay.......A few instances where impatient drivers were on my a%$ like a micromanager boss. They clearly wanted me to drive above the speed limit on 2 lane roads. Too bad, too sad. The roads are in good shape for the most part. The motorways are in great shape. Tolls aren't cheap. But at least you are getting a good experience. The only slightly confusing thing with the motorways was that the handling of tolls was not uniform. We had very few manned toll booths. There would be variations oh how to pay the toll. Once we had a toll station that would not take any type of payment cards.....only cash. I'd say be prepared with cash and cards. Also, try and get a Chip and PIN credit card prior to your trip for use at some gas stations.
I'm a very careful/conservative driver overall. In 43 years of driving, I've only had one speeding ticket in 43 years of driving. That said, speed limits didn't always make sense to me. Much higher in some areas that seemed like they should have lower limits. Speeding cameras abounded. Waze did a pretty good job warning me of the cameras. What was a bit unfair to me is that the speed might be 50 kmh and then suddenly drop to 30 kmh with no warning......then there would be a spending camera with hardly any time to decelerate. The benefit of having a smaller car with limited power was that it was difficult to speed on the motorway!
Time will tell if I got any tickets. If I did, it was in small towns. I certainly tried my very best to be a good driver and respect the traffic laws.