High speed train from Rome to Florence, where can you get a rental car?

An easy way to check would be online. However, I suspect car agencies would be in the station or nearby. Go to the car rental website and when you select Florence check to see if they are located in the station. I use dAutoeurope when I make my annual visit.

BUon viaggio,

RB

Most travelers here decide to take a taxi from the train station to the airport (it's not far) and pick up the rental car there, to avoid violating the expensive and notorious Florence ZTL's.

Here's why:

http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic_violations_italy.htm

Thanks for the tips! I'm really trying to get from Rome to the Vicchiomaggio castle. Our plans are to go to the Pope Audience which I think we will leave at 12:30pm. We have to check in to the Vicchiomaggio castle before 5:30, I thought the best way to do that was to take the high speed train to Florence, getting a rental car there, and then driving to the castle (supposed to be around 17km from Florence, 35km from Sienna). Does that sound doable if we take a taxi to the airport admist all this? Any ideas are greatly appreciated!!

I know the driving in Florence thing can be a bit daunting (see this http://www.florence-on-line.com/maps-of-florence/florence-driving-map-ztl.html), but most of the in-town car rental places are on Borgo Ognissanti or close to it - and pretty much outside the ZTL (and a few minutes walk from the station compared to a 20 euro plus cab ride to the airport).

We just rented a car from Auto Europa since it was the cheapest (399 US dollars for 8 days for a mid-size) we could find - but Avis and Europe Car and National and Alamo (or their partners) are all in the area. If you rent from them just make them mark a map with how to get out of the city and how to get back in - and with some the garage you need to drop the car off to which may be a block or two or three away from where you pick it up.

Just don't drive through a camera - which will be overhead - and pretty clearly marked. If you look at the map I linked to you will see the yellow marked streets you are allowed to drive which lead into the city and around the area where the car rental agents are.

The main thing is to not go tooling around INSIDE the old part of the city. We went all the way to Puglia with the rental last week, and drove to a bunch of cities/towns with ZTLs. Just follow the blue and white P signs for parking, park the car outside the city walls/gates/etc. and hoof it in - it is never that far!

If you can follow a map and road signs, it isn't impossible :)