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Rental car for trip starting in Pisa, through Montepulciano, ending in Florence

Posted by on

Hello. Planning a trip for next May 2025. We''ve booked a flight into Pisa, with a plan to pick up a rental car there, head to Volterra and spend two nights at Residenza Storica Palazzo Ricciarelli. From there, we will drive to Lupaia (near Montepulciano) and spend three nights there. After that, we head to Florence for a wedding.

I'm trying to figure out where to return the rental car. I've read lots of posts about returning cars outside of Florence and then doing the last bit of the Montepulciano-to-Florence leg via train, so as to avoid driving into Florence. But I am having a hard time finding a rental car that I can pick up at the Pisa airport and return anywhere other than the Florence airport. Would returning it at the Florence airport be terribly inconvenient? We will be staying in the heart of Florence, although I don't have that booked yet.

Thank you!

Posted by
10634 posts

Returning at the airport in Florence is easy. You can then take public transportation into the city.

Posted by
19 posts

Yes, thank you. We will be arriving in London the day before and overnighting there before flying on to Pisa the next morning. So, we'll have an opportunity to get some rest before the drive.

Posted by
3010 posts

We did something very similar a few years ago - collecting our rental car (Hertz) in Pisa and returning it at the Hertz office on via Sanovino on the outskirts of Florence. I was pretty skittish about driving anywhere near the center of the city and so opted to chicken out and return the car there.
Since we were encumbered with luggage we opted to taxi to our accommodation on the Oltrarno side of the river, which worked out well for us - was worth the cost for the convenience of the door to door service at any rate.
FWIW our booking was thru AutoEurope, and we opted for the zero deductible insurance cover.

Posted by
19 posts

Thanks Robert! We'll have a fair amount of luggage too, as we'll be there for a wedding and plan to head to the Amalfi Coast afterward. I'll look into that.

Posted by
7229 posts

Unfortunately the Sansovino Hertz location closed a few years ago
We used it ourselves back in 2014

The Florence airport location is fine for return-it’s just on the wrong side of Florence coming from Montepulciano
You can taxi into the center for about 22 euros or take shuttle back to terminals to catch the tram which will drop you near the train station.
With luggage I’d consider 22 euros for door to door service well worth it

Nice thing about airport return is you don’t have to worry about mid day closures -they stay open all day as well as Sat/Sun

Posted by
7229 posts

I believe SIXT is the largest car agency in Europe, so it’s fine

Hertz in Europe is not really the same as US

If you book this far in advance and pay now (for example on Auto Europe.com) you can always keep an eye on rates and cancel/rebook if you see a lower price. I’ve done that many times, AutoEurope is wonderful to work with

TBH I would wait until at least later this fall to even start looking.

Posted by
10634 posts

I always book through Auto Europe. They are a consolidator located in the U.S. I generally book online, but I have called them with questions from time to time and they are very helpful. If you will need an automatic transmission I suggest booking far ahead, maybe around January. Most cars in Europe have manual transmissions. The companies will charge a premium for an automatic.

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