I looked into renting a car to visit towns southeast of Siena
AVIS would be about 700 € and up for 4 days with drop off at a different location.
I'm wondering if hiring a driver for some day trips might make more sense.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Ira
UPDATE
We decided to stay in Spello and Cortona, and have booked a Rick Steves recommended guide/driver to visit sites around Cortona
Do any of those towns have ZTL (zones of traffic limitation)? If they do, it seems very difficult to NOT drive in them, and the fines are high. So I'd look into a day-trip driver.
A car with driver is usually much more expensive than rent a car alone. The cost depends how many kilometers you want to do and how many hours. For a full day trip doing like 300Km you should spend not less than 300€.
It's not that expensive to rent a car for 4 days, even though these days rentals are more expensive worldwide.
Check here, I tested 4 random days in June and prices are as low as $307 for 4 days):
www.autoeurope.com
Pick Up city: CHIUSI ALL LOCATIONS
Drop off city: CHIUSI ALL LOCATIONS
Once the options come up, click on "no deductible' box under the coverage option (that will give you full insurance coverage with no deductible, which otherwise could be as high as 1000 euro or more).
I don't know where you will be staying before and after (Florence? Rome?) but you can easily reach Chiusi via train from both Florence and Rome (the station name is CHIUSI-CHIANCIANO). Rental agencies are all walking distance from the Chiusi station.
Train timetable below:
www.trenitalia.com
OP may be pricing an automatic, those are expensive this year
Take a look at mydaytrip.com and see what you can arrange
Still going to be pricey
Do any of those towns have ZTL (zones of traffic limitation)? If they do, it seems very difficult to NOT drive in them, and the fines are high.
We spent a wonderful 10 days in Chianti, including day trips to towns southeast of Siena. We had absolutely no problems recognizing and avoiding ZTL zones including in Siena. We found ZTLs, especially in smaller towns to be well marked. We also assumed anywhere within the walls of a hill town or other village, such as Radda, San Gimignano and Volterra to be ZTLs.
We came home with no speeding tickets by strictly observing the speed limits and no ZTL fines because we could recognize the signs prominently posted. For extra assurance, you can go to websites with maps of ZTLs for numerous Italian towns and cities. We also opted out of driving in Rome and Florence, where dealing with traffic even outside ZTLs can be challenging.
