Car rental in Italy

It really depends on your risk tolerance what you do; CC coverage, thirds party, or through the rental company. Same with deductible or zero deductible. I believe if you want zero deductible you have to get CDW through the rental company. In Sicily, for piece of mind, we just got the full coverage, zero deductible through Avis and just paid the price.

We have rented a car in Spain, France and most recently Sicily. After our first trip, we settled on Autoeurope a consolidator for a handful of companies. I have called their U.S. based 800 number a few times, and I always get helpful information. We typically do not get additional insurance coverage because we have coverage thru our credit cards. We did get the insurance through Autoeurope when we rented in Sevilla and returned in Granada. Because it was just a few days the difference in price was small and we were driving through mountains and the white villages with streets barely wide enough for one car let alone two.

Rental car prices are high in comparison to 2-3 years ago no matter where you look. I would book sooner than later and cancel if you find a better rate.

We had full insurance coverage for Sicily. I talked over options with Autoeurope's rep and my recollection was that I needed to get it. I believe it was that our credit card coverage was not good in Italy/Sicily. (It has always been good for Spain and France). Yes, that made the rental car price very expensive. For this reason, I carefully planned the trip to utilize public transportation as much as possible.

Both my husband and I drove a manual transmission car years ago. More me than him. The car I drove when I lived with my parents was a manual. When in Europe (or Mexico) we've rented a manual. While I maintain that I am better at driving it, he is "gutsier" when parking on hills, etc. Plus, I plan the trips, and I am better able to navigate. I feel like after a few hours, driving a manual, it all comes back to you.

When we go to Great Britain, at some point in the future, we have decided we will not rent a manual. It will already be difficult enough with driving on the "wrong side" of the road and the driver sitting in what is usually for us the passenger seat.

My first choice is always public transportation. We only rent when we need to, to see what we want to see. We've had trips in which we used trains for the whole trip (Poland). For our upcoming trip to France and Spain, it will be entirely by car.

I use the Chase sapphire reserve card (the only difference between reserve and preferred in this regard is that reserve will cover more expensive cars than preferred but unless you get a luxury car it is identical) and always decline whatever coverage the rental companies offered. I have successfully gotten reimbursed for damage in Colorado and france on cars rented with Avis and enterprise respectively. The sapphire insurance covers everywhere in the world including Ireland, italy, Jamaica and all of the other countries that are sometimes excluded. You can call the chase benefits line and confirm that and get a letter saying you are covered. I have personally used it in Ireland and Italy.

While you do have to decline rental company collision coverage for your credit card company to cover you, that is unrelated to coverage being "primary" or "secondary" which just means whether you have to submit a claim to your personal auto insurance before your credit card will cover you. Chase is primary so you can submit to them in the first instance. In Italy there is some minimal coverage required by law I believe that you have to take from the rental car company and taking that minimal required coverage does not keep you from being covered by your credit card. In addition taking personal effects or third party liability coverage from the rental company does not affect things. You just always need to decline any optional collision / damage to the vehicle coverage offered by the rental company if you want your credit card to cover you.

As far as prices a long way out, I find it is usually cheaper the farther out. In addition most of the time there is no penalty for cancelling at any time if you find a cheaper fare as long as you aren't prepaying, so I always book whatever I find and periodically check to see if there is a better option

A lot of this was quickly typed on a phone, so hopefully it is not so jumbled that it is not useful.

Thank you for the responses!

jaimeelsabo-thanks for the reminder about risk tolerance. I must admit I have never paid more to have no deductible but people, including you, keeping talking about doing so in Sicily.

jules-we are in the same situation with stick shift--I drove a stick for longer than my husband but I am the planner. In Greece, he got frustrated with goggle maps and told me he would rather drive! I read your trip report for Sicily and saw that you picked up the car in Ortigia and returned it in Trapani. I had only looked at major cities so an option I had not considered.

toddling-thank you so much for the detailed response about Chase Sapphire and auto insurance! As you probably could tell, rental insurance and credit cards is a new world for me and really appreciate your insight and direction.

If you decide to take the insurance, read the fine print before shelling out $$. I once was about to succumb to the allure of “no deductible,” when I noticed that glass and tires were excluded. Since we had once experienced a windshield breakage ( paid for by our Amex card), I decided to continue to rely on our cc’s.
As they say, the devil is in the details. Many cards, including Amex, exclude Italy. You need to check with the cc company as to exactly what they cover. Don’t rely on what they did in the past. Also, the cc companies have so many different cards, you have to find out the exact details for the one you are going to use. That being said, we have twice had “incidents” in Italy. Our Chase card reimbursed us in a timely fashion.
As far as driving in Sicily, I found it no different from elsewhere. The two major problems were very narrow streets through some small towns and bizarre routes that our gps sometimes led us on.

Rosalyn-thanks for reminder that the “devil is the details”.

We drove in Crete this past May which I think had some of the same challenges as Sicily. Our GPS once took us down a dirt road in an olive grove in search of the olive oil factory where we were to have a tour!