Driving in Italy Questions

Jennifer,

A few thoughts on your questions......

1. I don't believe it's possible to provide a definite answer on that, as there are many variables. Whether you get an automatic will likely depend on how many they have in their fleet, how many they have at the location at the time you're renting, etc. Renting at an airport location may cost a bit more but you may be more likely to get an automatic there. Manual transmission cars are by far more prevalent in Europe.
2. I'll leave that question to Roberto or one of the others.

As this is your first time renting a car in Europe, there are a few potentially expensive caveats you'll need to be aware of....

It's important to note that for driving in Italy, each driver listed on the rental form must have the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. (so you must carry both). These are valid for one year, and easily obtained at any CAA/AAA office (two Passport-sized photos required, which may be provided by the issuing office).

You may also want to have a look at some of the posts on the forum concerning the dreaded Zona Traffico Limitato (limited traffic) areas that are becoming increasingly prevalent in many Italian towns & cities (especially Florence!). Some of these are enforced by automated cameras and some by local police. Each pass through one of the automated Cameras will result in a €100+ ticket and visitors often don’t know of these violations until several months after they’ve returned home. In addition to the actual fines, renters will also be charged by the rental agencies for providing information to the authorities. You may find this website helpful - http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/traffic_cameras_speeding.htm

There’s also the possibility of fines for driving in bus lanes, parking tickets, tolls and speed cameras including the devious Traffic Tutor system which not only monitors instantaneous speeds but also average between two points. Violate either or both parameter and expensive tickets will follow! Be sure to budget for the high fuel costs and note that some automated fuel pumps may only accept Chip & PIN credit cards.

A GPS along with a good Map is also prudent. Be sure to give some thought to the question of CDW and theft insurance. In Italy, buying CDW from the rental firm is usually compulsory, so coverage provided by credit cards will not apply. Check the Car Rental guide at http://www.gemut.com/ for more information. Their free "Car Rental" PDF Guide can be downloaded. You may also want to check the “Travel & Transportation” pages at https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country/italy.html for other tips. There’s also this website - https://it.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/local-resources-of-u-s-citizens/transportation-driving/?_ga=1.21563186.86862954.1474991758

Parking in Siena can be difficult to find at times, so you may want to choose a hotel that provides free parking.

In addition to the issues with driving in Italy, there are also some potentially expensive caveats to be aware of when using trains and other public transit in Italy. If you need more information on those, post another note here.

You will pay much more for an automatic car ; I assume you know that.
If you cannot drive anything else, you really have no choice.

From my experience it is possible at least with Europcar to book the exact car model you see when you rent.
Let me explain how I know this:

I recently booked from Florence a car with AutoEurope's website using Europcar.
I selected a Volvo V60 ; which was an automatic ; automatic I didn't care much about ; it stated it had in car navigation which to me seemed a nice perk and price was not that much higher than other cars.
Here is what the listing said:
Volvo S60 w/ GPS or similar
Full Size - Automatic

Anyway, a detail changed in my plans and I was now during my multi-week rental planning on driving into Slovenia ; my drop off point in Venice was not changing but I read somewhere that Slovenia is still considered Eastern Europe and you some car rental contracts don't allow you to drive there. I checked my contract fine print and sure enough Slovenia was excluded.
I called Auto Europe and they informed me the car I selected I could not drive to Slovenia.
In fact after a little more investigation, the car I selected was a "Fleet Car" and I would be getting that exact car and I couldn't cancel without penalty because of this. Normal rentals can be cancelled with no charge.
Fairly certain nothing on the site said anything about a fleet car.

I ended up being able to switch the car and not pay to cancel since my new rental (a couple of pegs down and a manual) was more expensive than the one I was cancelling. They charged me extra for allowing me to drive to Slovenia.
It was to be some Nissan Model I had never heard of, picked up the Car and got a Volvo S40 ; which is kind of funny. I got a manual.

Anyway long story short, call Auto Europe ; their customer service is in Maine not Europe and ask them about renting a Europcar fleet car with Automatic from either location and see what they say.
I imagine it will not be a problem.

I did a quick little Google search and found all these possible driving schools in Cleveland. You might start calling them to see if any can teach you how to drive a manual transmission. If you want to have maximum access to car rentals at reasonable rates in Europe, it would be worth the money.

BTW, there are tons of results when you Google something like how drive manual, and you can learn a lot from them, but nothing compares to experience behind the wheel. Once you learn, you can practice by renting a stick shift car. They're not easy to find, but if you know no one who has one, it's the only alternative.

Who knows? Maybe you'll actually enjoy driving a stick shift and buy a car with one. It might be a good deterrent to car jacking or theft. See this article from last year, and from Cleveland.

• FL1 train from Fiumicino to Rome Tiburtina Station.
• Bus to Siena that leaves from the bus station in front of Tiburtina
• Stay a couple of days in Siena, but on the day of arrival go to the rental agency to tell them again you can't drive a manual. As you'll have already paid more for an automatic there shouldn't be problems, but this way they'll have time to check once more.
• Get you car and go to Pisa and some hill towns
• Drop it at La Spezia main station
• Take a train to Monterosso or wherever you're going in the Cinque Terre area

The FL1 train costs 8 € per person (one way): it is different from the more expensive Leonardo Express that goes to Termini station.

I'm sure you know that there is a camera controlled ZTL area in every single italian city, town or village.

1) Automatic cars generally come only in larger models. Economy size with automatic transmission in Italy are as rare as unicorns. Also, since Italians don't like to drive them (including me, in fact I only have manual cars even in America), you have a better chance if you rent at locations where lots of Americans rent from. Fiumicino airport or Termini station will have them, but very unlikely in compact size cars or especially in economy size (I don't even think automatic transmission exists in economy size in Italy).

2a) High chance of having automatic car (at least on larger size vehicles) at airport. They'll have them for sure. I recommend you return the car in La Spezia (near Cinque Terre), and take the short train ride to Monterosso from there. The train from Siena is too convoluted because of the numerous train changes.

2b) Very small chance of getting automatic transmission in Siena. They are all small franchises. Even if you manage to rent one, return it in La Spezia, not Pisa airport, unless it's a Sunday, when La Spezia locations are likely closed.

If you learn how to drive a manual car while you are in the US, you might fall in love with them and ditch your automatic cars for good. Give it a chance.

Ken...thanks for the tips. I do have an Int'l driving permit. I read extensively before we travel. .planning is half the fun! I will check those websites!

Mreynolds. I will check Europcar! That is exactly the information I was seeking.

Lo. I call a couple of driving schools but they do not provide a car and I don't have access to one. I would love to learn to drive manual transmission. I have definitely not rule this out as I have 6 months before we go. Just wanted to cover all the bases.

DRioalb. I have heard some bad reviews about the La Spezia drop off. That's why I was considering Pisa. Any experience there?

Roberto da Firenze I definitely know that automatic means more money, etc. Thanks for the heads up about Siena.

Jennifer,

As you already have an I.D.P;, I assume it won't be expiring until after your trip to Italy? The permits are only valid for one year.

If you're considering dropping the car in Pisa, be sure that you don't have to pass through a ZTL area to get to the rental office.

Jennifer, I'm glad you haven't totally dismissed the possibility of learning to drive a stick shift.

There were about 45 schools listed in the link I provided. Not all were for learning to drive an automobile, but most of them were. Some may have websites that would provide details on their services. But you might have to call most of them directly to find out if they could teach you to drive a stick and if they have a vehicle to use to teach you.

So far, we have rented a total of 5 cars in 4 countries and driven them in 8 countries for a total of 9 weeks. All were stick shift. Most were diesel. All were different sizes of small. To Roberto's point, the biggest of them was the one we liked least.

Jennifer,

I had a brief look at driving schools in your area that might offer manual transmission lessons. The best possibility seems to be THIS school in the Akron area (not sure how far that is from your location?). Lessons are available in two hour increments and one lesson should get you up-to-speed with driving a stick shift (pun intended).

We rented a car at FCO a few years ago. It took over two hours to get the car we had long reserved because Hertz was super slow (this is typical of rentals in Europe -- none of that quick getaway stuff here). There was a guy there when we arrived who had been waiting two hours already for an automatic he had reserved; he was told 'oh we gave your car to someone else, so you'll have to wait till another one comes in." He was still waiting when we left two hours later.

WOW -- this was very helpful!!!
I'm actually super excited about learning to drive a Manual Transmission!

Ken -- THANK YOU for the link to the driving school -- it is about an hour from me....but that's not a big deal. I'm going to call them! (my IDP will expire right after we get home - I got it before we went to Spain, but then worked our trip out on trains & buses and never rented a car).

One more question.....since we are not leaving until May 28th....would it be better for me to take lessons closer to the time we are leaving? I don't want to forget how to do it!! Is it really like riding a bike?

Thanks for all the great information!

You might consider taking the lesson now, rent a stick-shift for a day or weekend a couple of weeks before you go, and decide if you need a refresher or not. Even if you just maneuver the rental up and down your driveway, make a few turns and back it up, you'll be able to tell.

Zoe, I never thought of that!
That's a great idea! ! I'll update you all when I learn to drive manual transmission!!

Driving a manual transmission car takes just a few hours to learn, however the more practice you can pack up between now and the time you leave, the more comfortable you will feel.

Driving in stop and go traffic at rush time in Cleveland with a manual car is not much fun, although you will develop muscle in your left leg with the constant pressing up and down of the clutch pedal. But driving on the hills of Pennsylvania will be much more fun than with an automatic.

Over 95% of cars sold in North America are automatic. Interestingly only 10-15% of those sold in the rest of the world are automatic and almost exclusively in larger luxury models (which often give you the option to select either transmission mode at the push of a button, depending on your preference).

Since rental companies tend to have in their fleets cars that are easy to resell in the local used car market, a similar situation will be present in their fleet in Europe, with smaller cars available almost exclusively with manual transmission and larger models available in both.

Jennifer, perhaps I look at this differently as I help a lot of folks rent cars in Europe. Driving any car - especially for the first time in Europe - can be uncomfortable. Ken outlined many of the challenges. And there's MORE - the signage alone can give you a headache, not to mention the strange city and street names, foreign driving habits, paying tolls in Euro, pumping gas, and the list goes on. To add to that a "lack of confidence in driving a manual transmission"... I say go for automatic transmission and cross one "uncomfortable task" off your list. I remember teaching my boys to drive a manual. I would NOT have turned them loose in Italy after a few lessons.

Auto Europe is a great place to look for Automatic Transmission cars. I've set up many of these and of all the vendors they use, EUROPCAR seems to have the best AT options. In some cases, Auto Europe will schedule to "bring in a car" to your pickup site. (Just did this in Nimes a few days ago). I've rented cars as small as a compact with AT (like a C4 Citroen last month in Avignon) so they are out there.

It's true you can get more options at a larger outlet like airports and train stations. But I've had a lot of success with AT cars at the Europcar Via Sardegna location, just off Via Veneto in Rome. If you work through certain travel agencies AE does have a "guarantee" that you will have your car within 60 minutes of your scheduled departure time. That eliminates "the waiting game" and may explain why that guy is still waiting for an AT car at FCO?

Driving out of Rome on a Sunday is GREAT if you can work that into your schedule as the ZTL's are not active and there are fewer cars on the road. With a car, I'd look at staying OUTSIDE Siena, in the countryside. No worries about parking in the city and you've GOT A CAR! Simply drive to Siena and use one of the many parking lots outside the walls (you can Google this and get more info)

Sometimes AT cars can actually cost less in Europe. That's primarily true at drop-off destination locations. For example, Venice is an EXCELLENT place to rent a car. Often you'll get a "free upgrade" because the vendor is trying to move that car back into the system. Saves them the trouble of transporting the car to Rome!

Driving in the countryside in Italy is a lot of fun. Good Luck!

Jennifer, if you've never driven manual before and have never driven in Italy before, I would suggest you at least explore the possibility of hiring a driver for your excursions. Use public transportation where possible (Rome to Siena) walk within cities and then let someone else do the driving while you do the enjoying. My husband is a great driver, drives manual, I'm a good navigator BUT an unplanned detour, poorly signed roads, etc caused "issues". I'm all for being smart with travel $s but there's a time where it's money well spent. I just think I'd use train/bus for everything you mentioned in b) but hire a driver for customized days out of Siena. Plus you could really enjoy the wonderful wines of the region. And with the euro=dollar conversion being favorable, now's the time to splurge!

If you decide to rent, practicing manual is a wonderful idea but be sure you practice on hills. Know where the ZTLs are and "drive" the route on Google Earth.

People who know how to drive a manual often have trouble with hills. If you aren't sure you'll get an automatic, don't plan on using a car.

You're "really anxious to drive through Tuscany" but if you have never driven in Europe, you may find that you are so stressed with the driving that you don't enjoy the time on the road and then are too tired to really enjoy the places where you stop. Take the bus - relax and enjoy the scenery.

Chani phrased it so nicely. This gets a BIG 2nd from me.

shout out to Ron.... great to see you!!

I am also thinking without ever driving a manual a couple of lessons would not be enough to then be thrown into a foreign environment to learn on the fly.
There are stresses already, adding to them is not a good idea.
I enjoy manual transmissions except in traffic.
For lighter weight and low HP cars which is what most cars in Italy are a car will definitely be peppier with a manual and get better gas mileage. If you compare even the same models in US and Europe you will note the European version has a smaller engine, geared differently and lighter weight. They usually do not feel underpowered or sluggish though so not saying one version is better than the other just that they are different and manuals make more sense on the European versions.

Years ago, manuals in the US were fairly popular on sporty cars since you could accelerate faster with them and made the car lighter and better gas mileage as well so many of us learned how to drive them.
In America the automatic transmissions are improving so much that on most higher end cars a shiftable automatic will out perform all but the very best manual shifting driver in terms of acceleration, they have gotten so much better so although I have owned a handful of manuals I would never be in the market to purchase one again.
20 Years ago most sports cars in the US were manual, now most every one is a automatic.
The next generation of Americans is only going to be less likely to know how to drive manual.

As long as you don't mind paying extra, plan in advance and OK with a physically larger car size ; I really don't think you will have an issue getting an Automatic Car using AutoEurope/Europcar.
Worth noting a physical larger vehicle is not an advantage for driving many streets in Tuscany, parking, etc...