Car rental location - Bologna, Florence or . . .

Look at Kemwel and Auto Europe they seem to have the best prices.

Not clear from your post if you arrive at Bologna airport via air or if you are in Bologna visiting the city before heading to Tuscany. Either way I would not bother with taking a train at all, but rather rent the car directly in Bologna on that Saturday morning and drive from Bologna to your final Tuscan destination.
If you arrive by air at BLQ that morning you should rent from the airport, if you are visiting the city you should pick up from a downtown location. All downtown rental locations in Bologna are within 2 minutes' walk from the Central station. Also I see no reason to spend €25 per person on the train ride if you intend to rent a car that same day anyhow. €25 euro will cover both fuel and tolls to drive the 65 miles on the freeway from Bologna to Florence. Actually you wouldn't go to Florence at all. From Bologna stay on the A1 freeway and exit at the VALDICHIANA exit, after Arezzo (I'm assuming you are going to somewhere near Montepulciano).
I don't recommend you rent a car in Florence as there are no rental offices at the Florence train station.
I also suggest you check prices with both www.kemwel.com and www.autoeurope.com, two consolidators based in Maine. They work primarily with Europcar, Hertz, Avis-Budget, Maggiore, basically the largest rental companies operating in Italy.

RE: Car Rental in "Center City" of Italy
Below are exerts from a post from Sara on the RS staff regarding rentals regarding rentals & driving in Italy. The response was to someone who rented from Hertz in the city center of Florence & incurred fines. The emphasis added is mine.

". . . Florence is a restricted driving city. There is a special pass that must be purchased to drive in most of the city limits of Florence. There are restricted driving zones and signs saying as much everywhere in Florence. If you drive in these areas without the pass, traffic cameras will take a photo of the license plate and mail out a ticket. . ." ". . . It is always better to pick up a rental car at an airport or smaller town nearby. Don't be afraid to ask your car rental agency for other pick up and drop off options. I hope this helps!"
Source: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tourist-scams/hertz-rental-car-italy-processing-fee

Americans are not used to some of the signs in Italy. Here is a sampling in this blog.

5 Easy Ways to Get a Ticket in Italy
http://www.italybeyondtheobvious.com/dont-mess-with-ztl-zones

There is a Florence ZTL map at the bottom of the above website. I am sure you can find a better one if you want one.

Enjoy your trip! Being an informed traveler can be good for the pocketbook. ;-)

Ciao!

Don't be scared by terrorist posts about traffic restrictions (aka Zona Traffico Limitato or ZTL) in the historical center of Florence or other ancient cities.
Those areas are well marked by very clear road signs like the one linked below, and in Florence they even have a bright red light on during the hours when restrictions are in effect.
http://www.comune.vicenza.it/img/ztl.gif
Even in America you get fined if you don't bother to read signs and don't stop at red lights or stop signs.
All you have to do is not enter those areas and simply park at a lot outside of the ZTL and proceed on foot.

Thanks for your responses! We will be visiting Bologna, and it would be convenient to pick up the car near the train station. I have never driven in Italy, but I navigated on a family trip to Europe 30 years ago, and city driving was a challenge. I was thinking about taking the train from central Bologna out to the airport, and renting from there. Would that be worth doing, or should I just enjoy the trial by fire? I consider myself to be a good driver, and we will have a GPS unit.

Mary Sue,

Number 4 of the link I posted about tickets is

"4 - GPS systems do not know about ZTL zones, and will pick the shortest route, which may indeed include driving straight into a ZTL."

Roberto,
How high are the signs posted? Are they posted at our USA average stop sign height or are they higher?

Personally, England is the only European country I have driven in. I am sure it is not difficult to drive in Italy. One day I will have that experience.

Cheers!

The height will vary. I've seen automatic signs in Rome at near waist height, I've seen signs in Siena quite high. There is no standard such as in the USA.

Having ridden the bus back and forth between the airport at Bologna and the town and station I can say it is some distance. It looks so close on the map but isn't as close as it looks....

Thank you, Nigel. Was noticing the ZTL signs in pics look to be posted high. :-)

Italian road signs are located at a height that is adequate to be seen by drivers, which is pretty much the height of where they would be anyplace else.
Is the height of italian road signs a problem now?

Have to agree with mph and Roberto. If you are not aware enough while driving to be looking for and following road signs- no matter which country you are in- you should probably rethink driving at all!

We found the signage to be very good in Tuscany/Umbria regions- had no problems whatsoever driving and we actually ended up with a mini van rather than the tiny car we had hoped for- was still no issue- even parked it in garage in Assisi!
As far as GPS not alerting to ZTL- I have no idea- but it sure was good alerting us to speed cameras.

The recent posts elsewhere on this forum regarding perceived scams seems to have set off a lot of negativity regarding car rental in Italy.

Thanks, all. We will rent in Bologna. I recall that the city traffic in the parts of Europe I have visited goes faster than the city traffic in most of America. If you don't know where you're going, navigation can be a challenge. I remember repeated circuits of traffic circles -- oops, we missed our turn again! But that was possibly a reflection on my navigation skills (or lack thereof) rather than any driving difficulties. I think the GPS will be a big help.

Mary Sue,

I wish you fun & enjoyment on your trip next year. I apologize to you for taking your thread off topic.

Ciao!