Car rental in Florence

I don't have a specific answer to your specific question but we did rent a car in Florence and had an interesting experience. We had reserved a car for rental way in advance. We arrived on a Saturday as I recall from the train station and proceeded to the car rental office which we found closed for the weekend as of 12 noon. With the help of some very nice receptionists at a hotel, we were able to find that the same car rental company had an office that was open at the airport. So we found a bus going to the airport and went there to pick up our car, and went on our way.

In that trip and others I have driven to Montepulciano, Voltera, San Gnminago, Cortona, Assisi, Orvieto, and Sienna. In most cases you will have to park somewhat far from the city center. In some cases you can drop off luggage not too far, then park the. car farther away.

If you go to Siena immediately upon landing at Florence airport it might make sense renting the car directly at the airport. Picking up at airports in Italy always entails extra charges, but if you are at the airport already, the extra charges for a week rental may not be much higher than the taxi to downtown (about 25 euro).

If you are already downtown Florence, or arrive by train, then don't bother with picking up at the airport. It's extra money for renting there, it's extra time and money to get there by taxi. Just pick up downtown. The airport is near the freeway going North (to Bologna) or west (to Lucca), but you need to go to the opposite direction (Siena), so it's also longer to get to Siena from there. Picking up downtown (Borgognissanti or station) is better in that case. There is no risk getting a ZTL ticket on exiting the city center. Cameras are only at entry points.

To return the car it depends which rental company you use. All of them have their cars parked (or used to) at the Interpark Europa garage, but Hertz opened an office recently right next to the mH Florence Hotel on Via Alamanni (not sure if they still retained the one on Borgo Ognissanti), which runs next to the train station (on the west side of it). The office is fairly new and I don't know if the rental return for Hertz is also there (I used to work on the building next to it about 40 years ago and there was an underground garage, but not sure if Hertz uses that too).

Sixt I believe has their (fairly) new office in the underground garage under the Piazza Stazione (basically under the square in front of the station, which is connected to the station itself. Eurppcar and Avis/Budget are on Borgo Ognissanti only (Interpark Garage Europa is where their cars are parked).

If you decide it is best to return at the Garage Europa, from there to the station is about 500 m. walk (just over 1/4 of a mile), so about 6 or 7 min walk.

You could return the car in Siena then train back to Florence or to wherever you are headed next

Hertz or Avis on Via Borgo Ognissanti you drive out of the Interparking Garage Europa at #96, and following a viamichelin route you will avoid the ZTL, but need to watch for dedicated bus lanes. The problem is a limited inventory, cars more plentiful at Via Palagio Degli Spini, the complex near the airport, reached from downtown by taxi; from the terminal by shuttle.

There are several rental car outlets in Siena - a couple of which are within walking distance of the train station if you'd prefer to rent and return right in Siena and then train back into Florence once you're done.
Double check their opening times however. Many of the rental car concessions outside the major cities have very limited weekend operating hours.
There's cheap underground parking at the train station that we found to be quite handy. From there it's a straight shot north into Chianti or south into the Val D'Orcia with no worries about the local ZTL's.

We have rented cars locally in Siena for travel in Chianti region. A car makes the area so much more accessible. This time we are training to Florence from Cinque Terra, renting a car from the station, and driving to Montelpulciano. There are 4 of us so it makes sense to not pay for the train plus we are dropping the car at Rome airport (saving another train cost). With GPS and Google Maps, driving is much easier than it used to be.

If you decide to return the car in Siena, you could take the Regional train from Siena to Florence then take the high speed train to Venice. That would probably be less stress than driving back to Florence then taking the train. However check if they charge drop off fees. They didn't use to charge drop off fees to return at a different location, but who knows now after Covid.

The car rental offices in Siena are closer to the Siena station than to the bus station (although you'll need a taxi either way, because it's a very long walk). The bus takes 15 min less than the train to reach Florence, but the train drops you already at the platform level and you don't have to walk from the bus station in Florence to the train station, although it's less than 5 min.

You could also return the car in Venice at Piazzale Roma, if you don't mind the 3.5 hour drive from Siena to Venice. That is also an option, but I'd do it only if you like to pack a lot of large suitcases (large suitcases and train travel don't mix well). The drive on the freeway to Venice is boring after Bologna (and stressful between Florence and Bologna given the large number of trucks on the freeway and the super long tunnels).

Somewhat related to this post… what is the typical drive time from Siena to the Florence airport on a weekday morning? Google and Apple Maps both show it approximately an hour. Can we trust that timeline within reason?

More or less, but it depends at what time in the morning. If your flight is very early, (let’s say before 7:30am) and you need to be at the airport one hour earlier than the departure time (FLR is small and check in and security procedures are quick), the traffic will be very light. But there is a bit of traffic around Florence after 7:30 am, in case your flight is after 8:30.

Since you live 9 hours ahead of Florence time, before going to Italy, check Google or Waze during the week around the Italian time you intend to travel.

Thanks again Roberto. We are returning our rental car to the airport, then taking the tram to the train station for Venice. Our train departs at 12:20. Thanks for the info from yesterday and today, it’s been super helpful.

Thanks, all, especially Roberto for great information.

Christopher