Our 14 day trip to Italy will begin in Grassina where we have a villa for 4 nights. There are 9 of us arriving in Florence from all over the world. My thought was to rent 2 cars in Florence, staying just outside of Grassina in order to tour around and then drop off the cars in Orvieto, taking the train into Rome. Does it make sense to try to meet and pick everyone up at the train station in Florence?
Any other suggestions? We would rent from Hertz as they have a drop off in Orvieto. Any thoughts on where to park in order to visit Florence?
Posted by
Boston, MA
1829 posts
The issue is you likely due to ZTL restrictions cannot drive to the Florence train station.
If everyone could meet you at the Hertz office you life would be much easier.
Florence - Via Borgo Ognissanti 137/R Via Borgo Ognissanti 137/R
Florence , 50123
It is not far from the train station (10 min walk or less)
They will give you clear instructions how to drive out from this location and get on the highway in the direction you need without fear of crossing into ZTL zones you are not permitted to drive in.
With multiple ZTL's, bus lanes and general heavy traffic Florence is not somewhere you want to be driving a rental car within unless you know exactly what you are doing.
Posted by
Ottawa, Ontario
89 posts
Excellent advice from MReynolds. Driving in pretty much any Italian city/town is not worth the aggravation! Walk to the rental office, pick up the vehicles and get out of town with the rental office's good instructions!
Buon viaggio!
Posted by
lexington, il
4105 posts
Pick up the cars, and park here.
http://www.parcheggiovillacostanza.it/en/
Take the tram to SMN station, 7 minutes. Then tram back to car park. Easy access to your Villa.
Hopefully everyone is arriving around the same time.
Edit: meet at the restaurant on the mezzanine level.
Posted by
OP
Orlando
12 posts
Thank you for the info especially the parking lot. We never planned on driving within Florence. Any particular little towns or places to eat we should visit while touring around for 3 days with cars?
Posted by
Boston, MA
1829 posts
There are countless towns worth a visit in Tuscany all within a car ride away for you, so your problem is going to be how to choose just 1 or 2 since you don't have many days for many trips if only 4 nights in the region and still have to include city of Florence sites within that timeframe.
San Gimignano, Pisa, Lucca, Chianti/Greve, Volterra, Monteriggioni plus Siena are all a short distance away.
A little further are Arezzo, Pienza, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Cortona.
I would rate Siena as the best one if you were to pick just 1.
It is fairly easy to drive there and park there for the day of site seeing as long as you are fine paying to park your car.
The Santa Caterina parking lot is easy off the highway and easy to avoid any ZTL's from the direction you would be traveling, it also has an escalator so you don't have to walk uphill too much.