Car rental return in Rome

We just recently returned a car to the rental car return at the FCO airport. Easy drop off if you are flying out of there. I wouldn't recommend driving in downtown. The traffic is a little scary. Be aware though that if you take a cab from FCO to downtown it is about 50 euros.

We will be staying on in Rome, so in some sense we would like to drop off the car in Rome and avoid the taxi/shuttle charge to get to Rome from the airport.

Alternatives, used by people here,to trying to return a rental car in Rome are: at the airport, even if you're not flying out immediately (it's easy and quick to get from the airport to Termini on the Leonardo express train); or return the car in Orvieto and then take the train 75 minutes to Rome.

Nancy, we returned our rental car at the train station in Rome, early in the morning, without any problems.

We recently returned a rental car at the Statione Termini in Rome. A previous post said the traffic in Rome is very scary, and that is certainly true. However, we returned the car in the evening so the majority of the traffic had calmed down. Here are some directions for car rental returns near Termini:
When you're in front of the Termini station, you want to take the street that is on your left as you look at the station - that is Via Marsala. Take Via Marsala all along the length of the train station. Once you've done the length of the station, you will be able to turn right and go through a tunnel under the tracks to the other side of the station. In fact, there are two parallel tunnels, and you want to take the "second" one - although they are side by side. You want to take this second one because you need to turn left at the other end. When you reach the end of the tunnel, you will turn left - - - and the parking garage that is immediately on your right once you've turned is the place to return the car. It isn't easy to spot - the names of the car rental agencies are posted on a sign on a pillar - but that pillar is sort of inside the garage so its hard to spot. At any rate, in order to be able to visualize all of this, I went onto Google Earth in advance and traced out the route to see what I had to do - and it worked pretty well. Trouble is - Termini is on the edge of a Restricted Traffic area, so making a mistake could mean you enter the traffic zone and that will cost you dearly - so be careful. Another hint: Google Maps seemed like a much more straightforward route to take from outside of Rome into the city than did ViaMichelin. Hope this helps.

We dropped the car in Orvieto.It is a easy inexpensive train ride to Rome.No traffic hassle in Orvieto.

We have not returned a rental car to Termini (train station) in Rome, but we did pick one up there earlier this summer, on a Monday morning. The drive was not bad at all. I would have absolutely no hesitation about returning the car there, since it sounds like that will be the most convenient place from which to go to your hotel.

If you are flying out, return it at the air terminal. If not, then choose a location near your hotel.

An alternate would be to return it at a suburban location and take the train to wherever you are going.

You can avoid driving in Roman traffic and you want to do that at all costs.

I use that method frequently when entering a crowded town. Local transportation is often fast and cheap.

Nancy, as you've pointed out it would be inconvenient to drop the car off at the airport since you'd have to return to Rome anyway. Previous poster Scott has provided excellent directions (Scott, why weren't you in the car with me last July, buddy?) I wouldn't condone driving all over Rome, but if you are ok driving in city traffic in general then getting to Termini is no big deal.

I love Scott's directions. We had little problem finding Temini, but it took us 25 minutes to figure out how to get the the drop off garage. Too many one way streets and "Zona Traffico limitato". Once we found the garage we had to go into Termini with all our luggage to fill out the paperwork. There has to be a better way.