Car rental in Florence

Live in fear of the ZTL. If renting in the centre, make sure they completely clearly explain where to drive -- and follow this to the INCH. Best of luck. They can ding your card up to a year later.

Put ZTL in the search engine and read. Not to spook you, but you have to have your act together driving in Firenze.

Good advice, if you can get to the airport. And driving in Tuscany can be joy inspiring...

... and when Rick says that driving in southern Italy, and Rome is a prime example, is where lane discipline is like that of an avalanche of rocks...

We survived it... others do too...

Lots of people have. I've rented in Florence to spend several days in Chianti and then more days elsewhere in Italy. That said, there can be a significant price difference for renting for only two days than there is for longer periods.

If your goal is to tour Chianti, a rental car is very handy.

One piece of advice...rent from the AIRPORT on your way out of town. If you rent from the city center you will be fined heavily for driving in the historic district (ZTL) without a permit.

You should also purchase a GPS with European maps and learn how to use it before you go. A GPS is indispensible.

You can't count on a car rental agency or hotel to report your presence to the local authorities. There are plenty of instances where this was not done and people have gotten fines totalling hundreds of Euros. Just rent from the airport and you won't have to worry about it.

Actually, while we've had numerous reports of tickets from the ZTLs, I can't recall any claiming they received one after picking up the rental car in Florence and driving directly out of town. Kent might recall such a post, but the ones I remember come from driving around town unaware of the ZTLs. In Florence, most rental agencies are on the Borgo Ognissanti which is a one-way road straight out of town. I just don't recall anyone reporting they did that and still received a ticket. Kent?

Our group arrived at the Florence train station (from Milan) and walked to a nearby Europcar office. Two of us went in to handle the rental and we made sure we understood COMPLETELY the directions out of the city center. I think we had the poor man at the counter repeat them 3 times (he was very patient). We wrote them down and followed them exactly and had no problem getting out of Florence (it was much easier than we expected). We'd do it that way again. At the tail end of the trip we dropped the car off at Rome FCO and stayed at the Hilton FCO so we could train it into Rome the last day. Although I was nervous driving into Rome FCO it was signed very well and we had no issues. I'd do it again.