Planning a trip to Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany

Have you considered a choice 3? Public transport to foodie places from Bologna? Given all the 'no drive' areas of towns and cities, real and bogus traffic files, car rental would be my last choice....or, at least only a day rental and do Parma and Modena food focus on one day.
Bologna is a train hub so you can get anywhere.

My suggestion, mainly if you are on budget, is do a mix of options 1 & 2. I mean, try to concentrate the visit you can do by train on some days, and rent a car only for other days to do visits in places difficult or impossible to be visited by train (or public transport).
In Emilia-Romagna, for example, the most of main cities are very easy to be reached by train from Bologna (Ravenna, Ferrara,. Modena, Parma, but even smaller towns on the main train line) while do it by car is a wasting of time and money. On the other side the most of food producers (and other interesting things: car museums, medieval fortresses, other museums like the Pavarotti one...) are in the countryside or in small villages, so the car in absolutely the best way to reduce the cost and don't lose several hours with a public transport who pass only few times a day.

Thanks to all!!