Lucca-Siena Tips? And Car Rental Tips?

Sounds like a great trip. 5 days to plan is great! Lucca and Siena (note spelling) are pretty far apart. Siena would best be visited while you have your week in Florence. Lucca is certainly a great place without a car. You can go to Pisa, Viareggio (beach), and enjoy Lucca. We stayed 3 nights and wish we'd stayed longer we liked it so much, and because we went to Pisa and Viareggio, we did not have enough time to see all Lucca offers. Also by train, other day trips from Lucca could be to Carrara or Montecatini Terme.

You will probably want to rent your car in Pisa or Florence when you are finished in Lucca and drive to Montepulciano. I have had great service from Gemut.com. Note the free download on the upper right of their site: "What You Should Know About Renting a Car in Europe." Lots of great info. They will help you decide on pick up and drop off.

thank you Laurel! The more I learn about Lucca, the more excited I am about visiting!

Amy,

For travel in July, I'd definitely suggest pre-booking hotels as that's peak travel season.

There are some potentially expensive caveats to be aware of in Italy with both trains and other public transit, as well as car rentals. Note that each driver on the rental form must have the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. These are easily obtained for a small charge at at AAA office, and are valid for one year.

You'll have to be extremely vigilant to avoid the dreaded ZTL (limited traffic) areas which exist in many Italian towns. EACH pass through one of these will result in hefty fines, which you won't know about until several months after you return home. Do not drive in Florence, as the city is just about saturated with automated ZTL cameras. There have been numerous posts on the forum over the years from people who have been "nicked" while driving in Italy. There are also automated speed cameras, including the Traffic Tutor which measures not only instantaneous speed but also average between two points. Violate either or both, and expensive tickets will follow! You'll also have to contend with tolls, parking charges, high fuel prices and some automated fuel pumps which may only accept Chip & PIN credit cards.

I second the suggestion from Laurel to contact Gemut.com as they're very knowledgeable.

If you need more information on the caveats related to trains and other public transit in Italy, post another note here or send me a PM.

Lucca is a lovely city. Lots of musical events, many are free (Puccini was born here). Pisa is close enough to be a daytrip.

I cannot imagine winging a vacation to Italy in July without rooms booked. Maybe just me but I like to have a choice of place to stay and read reviews before booking, you will be taking last available and in some cases driving from place to place inquiring I would think if you waited until you were there.

Would recommend taking a look and pricing at
AutoEurope.com
(they are actually in Maine and a consolidator much like Gemut)
Have never used Gemut but personally don't like that there is no way to get a quote easily within submitting a form and waiting for someone to get back to you.

Some good tips things to be concerned with mentioned already in this thread I will add that the well known US brands that exist in Italy are just licenses to use the name, they are not connected with the US company other than by name.
Most advise is that you want to stick with Hertz, Avis and EuropCar ; those are the big 3 and often who a consolidator like Gemut or AutoEurope will choose, but not always ; the others some of which are well respected here in the US have very poor reviews in Italy.

AutoEurope also has a deal where if you rent a car through them they offer a GPS unit for very little cost that is preloaded with the maps you need. The cost basically covers the shipping so the unit rental is virtually free, as they send the actual unit to your US address the week before you leave the US and then when you return you send it back to them. You have to ask for this it is not advertised but a fairly painless process.

The fact that most towns have a pedestrian zone, many are surrounded by walls and have ZTL areas makes hopping from town to town with a car to see the sights much less convenient than it is say in the US.
In general though, as long as you stay away from trying to drive in the big cities it will not be bad and the best way to see the countryside.

We are leaving for a Tuscany trip the end of May 2016 for 2 weeks. The first week we have a car, then are dropping it in Florence (we fly into Rome) to explore that city, then train back to Rome at the end of the trip. The car is appealing because you can explore the countryside. I am finding even in high season there are lots of AirBNB rooms available. At least in early June we are seeing them available. I've reserved our 'anchor nights' - our 3 nights in Florence, and 3 in Rome; and am now exploring arranging two nights in Siena - but the rest of nights we are trusting that we will be able to find a room at an Airbnb.

We'll be picking up our rental car in Lucca in mid-June and dropping it off at Chiusi, so picking up a car in Lucca is an option for you. We used Kemwel.com (aggregator, owned by AutoEurope.com) and the car rental agency is EuropCar.

With regards to the discounted GPS offered by AutoEurope/Kemwel, the cost is $40 shipping (to North America at least) and $1 a day up to $10 max. If you're going to be taking a smartphone and buying a local SIM card and data, you'd probably be better off skipping the GPS and just using your phone and Google Maps, Waze, or another mapping app that includes navigation.