We are renting car at Rome airport and spending a week in Tuscany area. Then we need to return car to Florence area and catch a train to another region. Does anyone have advice on returning rental car near Florence on a Sunday? I read another posting that suggested only using the airport car rental location near Florence so we won't drive in the city. I guess the other question is how far is it from airport in Florence to nearest train station, and best way to get there (bus? taxi?). Advice from fellow travelers would be greatly appreciated!
Posted by
525 posts
Have you thought of dropping your car in a smaller town? We are picking our rental car up in LaSpezia and dropping it off in Orvieto then taking the train back to Rome. I'm sure there is a train leaving from a smaller town to your next destination. Just a thought!
Posted by
OP
Gosport, Indiana, USA
4 posts
That would be great wtih us, but someone gave us the impression a few months ago that on Sunday we would need to return a rental car to a larger city. If that is not the case, that would be awesome. Perhaps I'll also do some checking through Autoeurope.
Posted by
525 posts
Yes, some locations are not open on Sundays or they have shorter hours. We had to change our itinerary out of Cinque Terre to leave on a Monday morning rather than Sunday to pick up our rental car in LaSpezia. AutoEurope site will show the hours and whether the location is open on weekends and what hours if shorter. Good luck.
Posted by
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
241 posts
We knew we'd be arriving in Florence with rental car on sunday AND, having driven in florence before, did not want to do it again. Plus office hours are restricted or not available on Sunday. Dropped it a airport (check hours for your agency), bus runs from airport to the bus garage opposite the train station every half hour, costs 4.50 Euro and takes about 20-25 minutes. Airport is on north side of Florence, and easiest approach is to take the circle freeway, which is a long drive, exit to airport which takes you south toward florence, 3 miles or so, and this freeway spur basically ends at the entrance to the airport. A longish drive but easy. On this 3 mile spur there is a petrol station.
Posted by
OP
Gosport, Indiana, USA
4 posts
Great info everyone. Thanks so much for all the helpful tips. Randy--we will definitely take your advice and utilize the bus from airport to train station.
Posted by
gaston, oregon, usa
842 posts
Bonnie and Kent "hit the nail on the head". Autoeurope will show you the hours that each location is open. Just use their website. We picked up our car in Rome @ the Villa Bourgesee car rental office on a holdiay. The abridged hours were listed on the website.
We returned the car on a Sunday morning at the Brindisi airport. No one was in the office, and they had a sign that told us to drop off the keys and a completed form in a drop box. It worked great.
Make sure that you look at the hours lited on the AE website. if they say that they are "open", they are "open", or they will have a drop box for you.
Posted by
In the Mountains, USA
689 posts
We dropped a rental car off at the airport in Venice on a Sunday. While they were not "open" there was a drop box for the keys. We dropped them in and were on our way into Venice. We expected some sort of letter as the passenger side mirror had a new scratch on it (CT driving...)but all we got was our receipt in the mail.