Drive from Lucca to Rome

If you are stopping overnight en route it is well worth it, if not it is less so to me because 1) I don't enjoy long (4h) drives and 2) the need to worry about your belongings in a trunk. They will *probably be fine, but it's not something i like to have to worry about.

We wouldn’t be stopping overnight, just saving a little time and (maybe?) complication since we already have the car.

Why not?
Easy to drop the car at the airport (FCO) and take a taxi, or drive into Rome and drop car at Termini or one of the drop offs near Villa Borghese.

But why do you need Hertz, unless you are a member?

We’re picking the car up in Bologna so needed a rental company that was there and also Lucca. Hertz must have had the best price for the size car. Is there another company you recommend or a reason not to use hertz?

I’d like an easy drop off, avoid ZTLs and hopefully any crazy Rome traffic. Airport? Or which train station? Thanks!

Yeah no strong reason not to since you already have the car. I’d check Hertz website to search locations.

I'd leave the car in Lucca and take the train. Change in Florence, easy and probably faster than the boring drive. Take a picnic lunch.
If you drop at airport you still have to get in to Rome- taxi or train. Also additional rental expense, tolls, gas.
The train from Lucca drops you right at Termini.

If you opt for a diff location- near Tiburtina or somewhere you will deal with ZTLs, bus lanes, open/close hours at agency etc and stil have ot get to wherever you are staying in Rome

I agree with the previous post..... drop the car in Lucca or other location in that area, and use the high speed train to Rome. You'll still be able to enjoy the scenery and I always find that a more efficient use of limited travel time.

You don't want or need the car in Lucca unless there is some specific place nearby in the countryside you are visiting that can't be reached by train or bus.

From Lucca it's a little faster to drive to Florence than take the train, but the train from Florence to Rome is at least an hour faster than driving and probably more than that. You could drive to Florence and take the fast train but after you drop the car and get to the train station I bet the train from Lucca would have been at least as fast.

Rented cars are an expensive burden - between rental, gas, parking and potential tickets - and I would plan to drop it as quickly as possible.

MY $.02,
=Tod

Thanks, everyone. I’ve thought about it and do think we’ll take the train. I think it will be less exhausting so that we can enjoy Rome once we get there.
Tod, we’d love to not have a car, but we’re staying at a villa about 10-15 minutes outside of Lucca - so will mostly be using it to get back and forth to and from the train station.

I've been using SIXT in Italy and Spain for the past few years. I've had very good experiences with them; it's a German company and they've been very helpful to me.

I've returned a car at Termini and at a place near villa Borghese. I'm a timid driver and neither was too difficult.
I also return in FCO airport and take taxi to Rome. But often return car there, at FCO, and spend my last night in Italy in the town of Fiumicino, near the airport. Its a great town.

My recommendation would be to return the car in Pisa and from there take the Intercity on the picturesque route along the coast to Rome. The other option would be to take the train from Lucca or Pisa to Florence and then the high speed train to Rome.