RE: Florence Car Rental

Borgo Ognissanti is the only rental location near SMN.
Which company are you using and where are you heading to?

Have no idea which company to rent a car from. Heading to Monteriggioni and staying there. However, understand Monteriggioni is small, difficult to get to by train/bus. Also, don't want to be "stuck" there....nice to have a car to come and go. However must return to Milan by Saturday afternoon....via train.

Would it be best to rent a car from Florence airport?

Borgo Ognissanti is 10 minutes walking from the station. Half of the agencies are in a free area, half are in the ZTL area. You would not have problems renting and leaving Florence; when returning the car, you should have instructions for the correct itinerary and follow them literally.

Rentals at the airport are in a temporary area difficult to access. Renting there adds difficulties. Try looking for rentals at via del Sansovino. Basically, you take a tram in front of the station and you get out in front of the rental parking area. At present, it is the easier solution, no walking, no ZTL.

Thank You for that information! You stated half the car rental companies are NOT in the ZTL zone in Borgo Ognissanti. Do you know which companies those are? Also, is the tram to rental cars free? Where exactly do I find the tram as I exit the train station?

Follow directions from Europcar on Borgo Ognissanti to Monteriggioni, and you will be fine. If you rent from Avis or Hertz, they are located at the Garage Europa, just 100 mts west of Europcar. Follow the same directions.
https://goo.gl/maps/hFEHjmuLKSM2

The rental car return for a Europcar is here, at the Garage Excelsion.
Google Maps can provide directions avoiding ZTL entries.
Avis and Hertz are at the Garage Europa on Borgo Ognissanti.

Parking Garage Excelsior
Via Palazzuolo, 94, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
+39 055 215100
https://goo.gl/maps/JUqiTHMt24v

I would not hazard returning the car in Florence but return it to the airport. Odds of running afoul of the ZTL coming in or drifting into a bus lane with subsequent multiple high cost tickets are high. If you are careful you can probably drive out of this location without messing up, but it is easy to do. Monteregioni is a real nothing. I hope you are not spending more than a couple of hours there. It has all the charm of any entirely tourist trappy location. It is charming at a distance and okay for lunch, but I'd base in Tuscany in a hill town like Pienza, or Montepulciano or Monticino etc etc rather than this tiny condo development in an old bastide.

Although Monteriggioni is very small and can be visited in an hour or two, it is actually a perfect location for day trips by car. It has its own freeway entrance and it’s at the crossroads to the roads to most famous locations, such as San Gimignano, Volterra, Siena, Chianti Hills, just to name a few.

Also Monteriggioni is not a condo development built by some Las Vegas real estate developer, It’s an ancient fortified village mentioned also in Dante’s inferno. It is actually very quaint and centuries older than Pienza.

Although Montepulciano is a favorite in this forum, however that area is not next to the freeway, so not ideally located for day trips beyond that area itself, which is of course beautiful also. The choice is yours, but it really depends on which towns/area you are interested in visiting.

Roberto, probably you were not in Florence in the last months; while the garage Europa can be accessed without entering the ZTL, in order to get to garage Excelsior you have now to pass a ZTL check at via S.Lucia.

As for the tram, it is not free; tram tickets at the tobacconist at the station gallery, tram stop exiting the station on the side of via Alamanni.

lachera
To go the Garage Excelsior I wouldn’t take Via di Santa Lucia.
I’d take Via Melegnano, then straight through Via Maso da Finiguerra, then turn left on Via Palazzuolo.
Another way to get there was from Piazza Stazione, then via S.Caterina da Siena, right on Via della Scala, then immediately left on Via dell’Albero. At the end of Via dell’Albero, turn right on Via Palazzuolo.

Any new ZTL cameras on those two routes? Or did they change the one way direction of Via Palazzuolo forcing you to come from Via degli Orti Oricellari/Santa Lucia.

If they did, your Mayor Nardella is really a figlio di buona donna. He’s always harassing people: people who want to eat on church steps, people who want to give rides to prostitutes, and now people who want to return a rental car.

Roberto, my mother was born in via dell'Albero, so I somewhat know the neighborhood. They reversed the direction of via Palazzolo, so you have to enter from via S. Lucia; and they put a radar check at the beginning of S. Lucia. This because residents complained that too many people entered from Maso Finiguerra as you suggested :-)

I know the neighborhood too. Economia and Commercio was on Via Curtatone during my university time.
Then I guess you need the car in the white list to return it to Europecar at the Garage Excelsior.
Can you enter Via Palazzuolo from the side of Via Rucellai then? Or is there some other camera there?

Well next summer I return it at Malpensa so I won’t care.

No, the short stretch between via S. Lucia and via Rucellai goes direction via Rucellai, so you have to enter from via S. Lucia anyway.

Just out of curiosity. Does anyone know the cost of a fine for driving in a ZTL zone?

Thanks for all the previous responses. Interesting input!

You can’t enter without realizing it. The camera apparatus is very visible and in Florence they have a red light too (and sign in English). Since now to return the car at the Excelsior garage you need to go through a ZTL gate with camera, the important thing is to remind the rental garage staff to enter the car license in the White List of the City Website. Once the car license number is inserted in the white list, the city does not issue fines to that license number.
I checked the garage website and they say all cars entering there are automatically placed in the white list, and a 1€ charge is added to you for that favor. But it doesn’t hurt to remind them to make sure.
I think the fine is 84€ if paid on time.

Thanks for all the info. Can I get a recap, however? The thread has gotten more complicated than I can navigate. I'm in a similar situation to kath4cubs, in that I want to pick up a rental car in the Florence area and will drop it off in Rome a couple days later. So...what's best if I want the most convenient, least expensive option that doesn't involve ZTL zone issues? I'm staying right by Boboli Garden.

Borgo Ognissanti is the closest to you.
Hertz also has locations on Via Ambrosoli (Bellariva) and Via del Sansovino, outside the city center and near the A1 freeway entrance (especially Via Ambrosoli). Europcar is located on Borgo Ognissanti and also via Forlanini (Novoli district, on the way to the airport). Avis Budget is on Borgo Ognissanti where Hertz is. All of the above are also at the airport, but that’s too far and out of the way.