Car rental with "full coverage" insurance

When you rent a car in Italy, CDW insurance coverage is mandatory. The rates are much lower than in other parts of the world, so I think their government must be limiting the price of this very profitable part of the car rental business. I think auto theft is an issue in Italy, and that's also covered.
The car rental companies will often throw a secondary insurance protection plan on your rental contract (without asking) that covers thefts of personal belongings if left in the rental car. Most people would want to reject this coverage as many homeowners' insurance policies "back home" will cover your belongings in other countries. Most rental cars have a retracting cover that goes over luggage to prevent your stuff from being seen, and it should be used.

I would recommend looking at Kemwel and Autoeurope. Same company owns both. They have very good deals on car hire in Italy and in my experience their price always includes a zero deductible - you cannot get better than that. They are a reseller so your car hire will be with someone like Europcar.

You will find many people on here recommend them too.

David is correct that the rental companies include CDW but this carries an excess of around 900-1300 euro depending on the car and company. You pay extra for zero deductible.

You will usually be asked if you want the extra insurances. I ask them to tell me about the different levels of insurance. On our trip in June we opted for the 2nd highest covereage since we were spending the time with the rental car in Tuscany and the odds of having our personal items stolen or the tires vandalized was very low. The attendant at the desk agreed with us and said the 2nd tier coverage was the best option for us. It didn't add much to the per day cost. We're glad we had it because while we were exploring Val D'Orcia someone tried to park next to us but didn't quite fit in the space. They scratched and dented the entire side of the vehicle. When we returned the car there were no issues because we had the extra coverage.

We've had issues on other trips with damage done to the vehicle and the extra insurances has always been worth the cost. Ask the attendant which would be best based on where you plan to travel. If it's just for the Tuscany area you won't need the tire/personal items level of coverage.

Donna

Thanks for your quick responses and good info. I will be renting through AutoEurope. I appreciated Donna's story about the car damage but not to worry about theft of personal belongings. I will definitely get all the coverage I need. Pam

When we rented a station wagon to tour all of Italy, a lady drove into the back of us South of Lake Como; she couldn't speak English so called her boyfriend who came and then turned over his wallet so I could copy all in info; i.e. driver's license #, name etc. When we returned the car in Venice the chubby attendant at the car rental co. Hertz just looked at my info and was going to keep it; I said please make a copy of my info (which he did) and just stapled it to the Form and said thanks and goodbye. Very easy as I had CDW which is mandatory in Italy and very inexpensive!
Jean