Confused And Need Help!

1) Don't speed and 2) learn what the ZTL signs looks like. If you google it, you will come up with multiple tutorials.
Be sure to read up on parking too.
We have used GPS and also Google Maps on the iphone (I navigate while husband drives). Never count on GPS to not get you into trouble. I would not take the car to Pisa and Siena would be questionable. Use it for rural exploring and villages.

Sure, did it last year. Every town we encountered had a speed gun at the city limits where the speed limit changed. Have no idea if they were active or not but made sure we were under the limit as we approached. Second, about the only place you have to worry about TLZ is in major cities like Florence. In the smaller towns we didn't see many zones except for the obvious pedestrian walking zones. Generally we parked in the outlying lots -- obvious - and walked into the city center. We took had our own GPS with maps because we know how to operate it and backed it up via goggle maps on iphone. We found everything was very accurate. It has been over a year and no tickets.

You do need to make advance reservations for the wineries - especially better ones.

Get the International Drivers Permit. Read up on driving in Italy.

A better solution to the rental GPS is to take your own. We have a Garmin that accepts SD cards with maps. We bought the Italy/Greece map. The advantage to taking your own is that you can pre-program addresses before you leave for your trip. As soon as we picked up our rental at Rome FCO, I plugged in the Garmin and went to Saved Places and pulled up our agriturismo that was just outside Greve. The Garmin took us directly to it!

I think the ZTL situation tends to be overblown. If you are in small towns, you'll find ZTLs well marked and easily avoided. If you are visiting a small hill town like Radda or San Gimignano or Volterra, the rule of thumb is anything within the walls is in the ZTL. There's parking outside the ZTL, you just park and walk in.

ZTLs in larger cities can be trickier, especially in Florence and to a lesser extent in Siena. We had an easy solution for Florence, we just left the car behind and took the bus into town. Since we were near Greve, we just parked in the free municipal lot.

When driving you should make sure you scrupulously adhere to speed limits. There are automated speed checks, including speed cameras. Also be aware that the legal limit is lower than the US, .05 as opposed to .08 for the states. For at least one visit to a winery, do a food and wine pairing at lunch or dinner. This is the best way to taste and appreciate wines.

Be sure to drive the Chiantigiana road. It is spectacular! We also took a drive from Greve to San Gimigano/Volterra. That's a good day trip. How many days in Tuscany will you have?

We had a great time driving around Tuscany. We based ourselves at an agriturismo and spent our visit doing day trips. Study up and follow some common sense guidelines you you'll be fine.

For ZTL, it is very confusing. I used Waze in Tuscany last summer and it was good at helping me identify ZTL zones (and traffic cameras). It is important to familiarize yourself on the ZTL areas in the towns that you are visiting as well as traffic signs. Overall driving in Tuscany region was easy. Make sure you get your International Drivers License before you leave home.

For parking, overall in the countryside, it was straightforward. Siena is a bit more difficult. They have parking at the Stadium (which is right in front of the town entrance and alongside the outer walls. Our issue with Siena is that we went on market day and we had a 7-passenger van. It took over 35 minutes to find an open space (one that we could fit into and not hit anything). We would have been okay if we went earlier in the day, had a smaller car. If you go on market day, just plan to arrive early or drive around to you find an open space.

Sandy

The gps on your phone will do just as well as one rented from a car agency. Don’t count on either to be perfect.
As to ztl’s, forewarned is forearmed. In many years of driving in Italy, I only once stumbled into one.

Two things you should be careful about are combining wine-tasting with driving and speed limits. Allowable blood alcohol levels are lower than in the U.S., and driving under the influence is taken very seriously. Familiarize yourself with speed limits on various kinds of roads. There won’t always be speed limits posted, actually rarely; but once you pass a sign indicating a town, you must slow down to 50kph. Hidden cameras are all over to catch speed infractions.

Thanks! This is helping tremendously! I will sit down with the husband and talk.

Agree with the above, with one minor caveat: ZTLs could be in smaller cities. I ran into unexpected ZTLs in several medium-sized cities elsewhere in Italy, so my rule of thumb is now to be on your 'A Game' (alert and actively watching for ZTL signs) when approaching the center of any "old" city. They are generally well marked -- once you've seen one, you will recognize them when you encounter one. As an aside, if there's a ZTL, you probably do not want to drive in there anyway, with tiny, maze-like streets, crowds of pedestrians and impossible parking. Although I once had a harrowing experience with ZTLs, I made my peace with them, and in fact now view a ZTL as a message from god that it's time to park the car, get out, and proceed on foot if I'm headed into the center of an old city.

Don't blindly follow any GPS into an old city center!!! That's exactly how I ran into trouble once.

Good warnings above on speeding, and watching for robo-camera speed traps; these are increasingly common across Europe, and will snag the unwary. Again, they are almost always very clearly marked and easy to spot unless you are so on "autopilot" that you probably shouldn't be driving.

Don't drink and drive - winery tours, sure, but no sampling for the driver. They take the DUI laws seriously.

Well no sampling for the driver means no fun for my hubby!

ZTLs are present in plenty of places -- be sure to look up each city/town that you plan on going to in order to know for sure.

I've been helping a friend pay her ZTL violations for a long weekend she spent in Bergamo recently -- she had three ZTL violations, two of which were only four minutes apart. No fun and doubled the cost of her weekend away.

And no, driving and visiting wineries and imbibing do not mix. Laws are very strict on blood alcohol level at which you'll be arrested. Hire a driver or take a taxi if you both want to indulge.

Well no sampling for the driver means no fun for my hubby!

And no jail time, no hospitalization or bereavement either. We're all adults, right?

The ZTL sign looks like this.
The round red and white circle is used throughout Europe to signify NO MOTOR VEHICLES ALLOWED.

the rest os the explanations below the sign above mean:
two crossing hammers: weekdays (Mon-Sat)
7:30-19:30: active from 730am to 7:30pm

Then there are the exceptions:
Police vehicles
Handicapped
Residents of sectors A and B
etc.

Don’t bother to read about the exceptions because none will apply to you. You must care only about the round sign and the hours of operations.

In Florence they also use a bright red light (or green when the ZTL is open to all). Also all the writings in Florence are both Italian and English.

Or perhaps take a tour that hits wineries. I haven't taken one, but they are occasionally mentioned here. However, I think such things normally depart from a major city like Florence, so taking one could be a bit difficult if you are staying in a small town or in an agriturismo in a rural area.

We are departing from Florence... Walk About Tours has an all day tour of Tuscany. I just hate the thought of being herded like cattle.

The alternative to not driving impaired does not have to be a tour. Book a place near the wineries you wish to visit and hire a driver--it's not that difficult!

Another alternative to taking a tour is to stay at a winery. We stayed at Castello di Verrazzano, just outside Greve. You can check your dates to see what they offer when you will be there.

I think the optimum for you would be to do an evening meal, if available. We did the winery tour and food and wine tasting when we first got there. That took the better part of the day. Later in the week, we had dinner there as well. We had essentially the same menu with the same wines, but were able to go back to our room after dinner.

Last time in Tuscany, I programmed the parking as our destinations for hill towns. If you enter the town as your destination, you may be led directly into the ZTL. And signs are not always wher you would expect them. Up high, no advance notice, so by the time you spot the sign, it may be too late to turn around.

I just purchased an Amazon book that is called “Tuscany by Car”, mostly to learn more about the Maremma area of Tuscany (1 of sux chapters). But the book provides a link to a website where you can download GPS coordinates (POI) many of which are parking lots, and hotels, restaurants, things to see, hikes, etc.)
The POI are now in our Garmin as favorites, and also saved as a custom google map, downloaded so we can use use off line without cell service.

After a couple nights in Florence and Lucca, we will pickup rental car in 10 days. I’ll report back how the book and POI worked for us.

Off topic, but Karen there is a nice little guide to the Maremma called Travel guide to Maremma Tuscany by E. Detti.
A Culinary Traveller in Tuscany: Exploring and Eating off the Beaten Track also covers it a tiny bit.
I really adored that area!