Driving out of/into Florence

Traffic will be your typical Italian crazy city driving. More importantly Florence has a somewhat complex system of ZTL's or Limited Traffic Zones. While going to and from the rental location is allowed, you do not have free reign of the city, so a direct or specific route mey be required going in and out of the City. Make sure you discuss this with the agency, and make sure they register the car both in and out, otherwise, 6 months after you get home, you may get multiple tickets for many hundreds of euros.

A number of travellers have taken to picking up and dropping off at the airport, and keep in mind that nearly every town in Tuscany has some form of ZTL and Traffic Cameras.

Do a search on here and see some of the conversations, if you are unclear as to what I am talking about, there is pretty good info here:

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/traffic_cameras_speeding.htm

The Florence ZTL's have been an expensive problem for some travelers, click here to learn more about that.

I would not take the chance of driving in/out of Florence to pick up your car. There have been too many people that have received tickets in the mail a year after they returned home. I would arrange for pick-up/drop-off at the airport. It's worth the extra charges.

If the rental car agency is on the Borgo Ognissanti, look closely at Florence street maps for the way out of town. It's not hard; you turn left (from most agencies) and drive straight out through the old city walls. You're out of the ZTLs then.

I did some more checking and it looks like EurpCar has a location on Via Del Gelsomino across the river and somewhat out of town. Has anyone had any experience using that location? It looks like a fairly straight shot out of town.

I think that ZTL map link is a good post for people, especially if they are looking at driving near Florence. If you are basing in Siena for a few days, it would probably be easier to take the train or bus there and pick up your rental car there. If its a one day trip, the car may not be much value and more hassle than its worth.

I agree with Denise, I returned a car at the airport and it was fine. i don't even like taking cabs in Florence, LOL! I remember walking underneath one of the ZTL cameras and thinking how intimidating they were. Can't imagine driving near one. So many one-way and confusing streets, it's really easy to find them impossible to avoid. in Siena, I was going towards a parking lot that was literally outside the camera there. if I had missed the entrance to the garage, I would basically have had no choice but to drive through the camera.

We rented through Avis about six years ago and it was fairly easy getting out of Florence but getting back in was tough because the names of streets changed on every block. This was the Avis located near the Arno and I don't think we faced any ZTL zones. This was back in the day when we had no GPS.

We rented a car from that same area, near Santa Maria Novella, and had no problems getting out of Florence. The rental agency can mark out your best route on a map and away you go. Make sure you come back the same way!

We rented from Hertz near train station and had no problem either ~ we are going to do it again this year.