Car rental when leaving Florence— need advice please

We rented from the Hertz at the train station. It was fine. We got out of town with no problems. Returned to the same place.

Where will you need to drop the car?
Go to www.AutoEurope.com and see what your options are.

Picking up near train station in Florence is fine.
Airport rentals are slightly more expensive, but might be best for your particular needs.

There is lots of advice here about doing that.

Do a few searches “car rental in Florence”

Susan, we rented through Autoeurope, picked up a car at the Hertz location on Via del Sansovino and it was such an easy, direct “out of town” to the SR222 toward Chianti. We, too, were looking for the easiest option and wanted to avoid driving within Florence. We taxied from our hotel, which was a bit closer to the Arno than you will be. Not sure if you’ll be returning the car in Florence (we continued on to Rome), but I would think that the same location would be an easy return.

We have picked up cars in Florence on Borgo Ognosanti. It is an easy connection to the autostrada out of town.

The most logical choice for you is to pick up downtown on Borgo Ognissanti, the street where all rental car offices are located.
For directions out of the garage to the freeway read my last comment in the post below. I even posted the photo of the streets you will be going through.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/car-rental-in-florence-airport-vs-train-station

Unasked for advice beyond the basic question:

for driving in Italy each driver from USA/Canada is legally required to carry an ID{ in addition to their home license. Take a passport sized photo to CAA/AAA/your local state's abbreviation and for a few dollars they will issue it. There will be battles here as to the necessity of it, and that they've not been checked, or it didn't matter, but it boils down to do you feel lucky - kind of like insurance you never need, or not very often - or do you comply with the law...

before you start to drive anywhere in Italy, and especially in and around Florence, become familiar with ZTL signage and concept (you can't drive there even if others are doing so - or big fines are handed out by camera months later), what bus lanes look like (similar result), also one way streets, and learn about speed cameras and TUTOR.

These hints are to save you big bucks and aggravation...

Thank you all for your great advice.. some answers- we will be returning the car to Rome. We have driven in Italy before- we have a great story about following the GPS down an old Roman (not a road) road. Thanks again!

I'm renting a car for a week between visits to Florence and Rome. I started with Autoeurope, as usual. The best offer was Europcar. I went to them direct and got a better offer on the same car class. Prices were the same for the city and the airport. Dropping the car anywhere different from the pick-up had a drop-off fee of 80-90E, so I'm returning the car in Florence and then taking the train (less than half that amount) to Rome. For a couple, it's probably better to pay the drop-off. Since I'm returning the car on a Sunday, I'm taking the car at the airport (24/7 availability). There's a tram from the train station so it shouldn't be a big hassle. BTW if you have any special requirements - like automatic - you may do better at the airport since they surely have a much larger fleet.

I've rented often from Europcar and it's always been good.