Car Rental in Tuscany

Outside of the bigger cities in Tuscany, rental cars are seldom available.
We rented from Hertz on Sansovino in Florence. They gave directions out of town without getting close to the center city ZTL. The rental location is about 2 miles from the train station, as we took a taxi over there.

You can rent directly from Hertz or from AutoEurope.com and get the same location and car. We go with the cheaper rental.
Rental cars are the most efficient way to see the Tuscan hilltowns. Roads are very well paved in the region, however off the beaten path they're a little crooked. But you can see many times more sights with a car than trying to take public transportation.

Hi - I have the same question as John. I read that Hertz has a rental office in Sansovino as well as Borgo Ognissanti. Not sure if one is better than the other. My question is more along the lines of if we reserve on-line months before we go an automatic 7-seater van-type car, will that be a problem from either one of these two Hertz locations? It seems on-line reservations are easy. Am I missing something? If we reserve what we want, do we have to worry that it won't actually be there when we arrive? Or can we trust reserving online from Hertz? There's also a Hertz office at the airport but seems silly to have to go all the way to the airport when there are Hertz locations close by.

Pick up in Florence, drop of at La Spezia.
I use a consolidator (www.autoeurope.com). They work with all the majors but generally Europcar and Hertz have the best deals in the AutoEurope website.
All companies have an office on Borgo Ognissanti, in the city center. It's easy to get out of town. No need to worry about ZTL while exiting the city center.
Hertz has an out of center facility on Via del Sansovino. Europcar has one on Via Forlanini, in the Novoli district. All have one at the airport as well, but picking up at the airport costs a bit more.
ZTL are in every old town. Actually Florence's is signaled in English too, and has a red light when restrictions are active (during the day). In all other circumstances you need to learn the international road signage system used in Europe.
Regarding renting vans, they are available, however renting a van costs as much as 3 economy cars, therefore it's better to split the party and rent two small cars, if possible. Vans are also more difficult to manouver in Italy's very narrow streets.

You may have better luck at the airport for an automatic. The airport is under 5 miles away. Bus to is around 3-6 E taxi is 22-25E.

If you decide to rent in town, make sure to call them the day before to confirm the automatic. Otherwise you may end up waiting for them to transfer vehicles.

Agree with Roberto, rent 2 cars if you have another driver.

Thank You. I think you are giving me the assurance I needed that renting in Florence is probably the best option. But I am still wondering about taking the train to Chiuso and renting there. Is there a good reason NOT to do that?

I read that Hertz has a rental office in Sansovino as well as Borgo Ognissanti.

A quick check shows Sansovino has 7 passenger automatics as choices. We rented from Hertz FCO. I'm a Gold Member and rent often for work. We had no problems. We got a nice Peugeot SUV diesel. It was manual, but it automatically brakes for you on an incline.

"But I am still wondering about taking the train to Chiuso and renting there. Is there a good reason NOT to do that?"

Two reasons that I can think of:
1. Since Florence is a larger city than Chiuso, most likely there is also a bigger rental fleet/variety (since you'd like a larger vehicle).
2. Why pay train fare and a rental car price for one day of travel? This method also takes longer. (We rented in Florence for Tuscany exploring also, and it was fairly simple to exit Florence without hitting ZTL's).

Have fun!

P.S. Tip for driving: When we drove around Tuscany we noticed that many of the country roads are wrapped around the interstate roads. We plugged in "no highway" to our GPS and had more fun navigating this way, taking our time on country roads rather than dashing from exit to exit on the big fast-moving highways.

There is no reason to take the train to Chiusi (not Chiuso). Driving out of Florence is easy, as long as you avoid the peak commute time. If you pick up the car in Florence, you can visit nice places along the way to Montalcino, like the Via Chiantigiana (SR 222) or San Gimignano.

Also, not sure about finding a lot of automatic cars in Chiusi. Automatic cars constituted only 15% of new cars sold in Italy in 2016 and generally rental car companies like to keep in their fleet cars that are easy to resell in the used car market, since they keep them only a few years. Therefore the automatic choices tend to be few, as Europeans are not too fond of buying them.

What I would like to emphasize, is that renting two smaller vehicles is more convenient and cheaper than a van. If you have two drivers in your party, it's best to go that way. You can check prices for yourself in www.autoeurope.com.

I am saving this since our plans are the same... except coming from Venice to Tuscany. I was also hoping to get close to Montepulciano before renting but may choose Florence if that is quicker & easier. Thanks for the input!

Adding to Roberto's excellent knowledge, two small cars will give you more flexibility if folks want to do different activities or make pit stops. Bit more difficult to park, though parking small cars is probably easier than parking a van, as much of Europe is city cars.

I love that suggestion for your group.

Laura, why not rent in Venice? We drove the opposite route: Montepulciano to Venice. Took a few hours on the highway, no problem and it was fun stopping at Italy's version of a rest stop (better coffee and better food for sure haha!). We returned our car to Hertz in Venice near the Garage San Marco - walkable to our rental in central Venice, so that is where you could pick up the car :)

Thanks for the suggestion. I will be getting advice from my cousin in Belluno to see what she suggests too... whether to take train to some point on our way to Montepulciano or drive the entire way. Will be dropping the car when we get somewhere near CT.

I took a few days off from my trip planning but now have caught up with you and thank you so much for the tips.