our motel accomodations are outside of pisa. we will be arriving in pisa by train. is there a car rental company that you recommend? will need automatic and gps. thanks
also i have some confusion on when you need to validate train tickets
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23781 posts
The ONLY ticket that needs to be validated is a ticket for a Regional train purchased in the station, ticket machine, or local travel agency. All other train tickets includes a seat reservation that is specific to a certain train at a fixed day and time. Miss that train and the ticket is dead. So that ticket is only valid for that train at that time.
Regional trains have no seat reservation - open seating. And once you validate (time stamp) your Regional train ticket you can use it on any Regional train and it is valid for four hours.
Automatic transmission can be requested but seldom guaranteed. Check autoeurope or any of the big name rentals like Hertz.
Posted by
Rural Georgia
2220 posts
Do you have a Garmin? We bought the Italy/Greece SD card for our Garmin. It was cheaper than renting a GPS with the car. It also allowed us to enter numerous addresses we would need and save them before we left for our trip. When we arrived at the airport, we just mounted the Garmin, turned it on, adjusted from mph to kmh and pulled up our agriturismo saved entry. The Garmin directed us perfectly.
Too bad you can't use a stick shift. Manual transmissions are more the norm in Europe and you'll have a wider variety of choices.
We rented from Hertz in Italy and were pleased. There are 3 rental locations in Pisa.
Make sure you have an International Drivers Permit. Also study up on the rules of the road in Italy, including ZTLs. I followed the rules, including speed limits, and found driving in Italy easy and fun.
Posted by
Boston, MA
1832 posts
I find a free app like WAZE on a smartphone with data actually works better than any GPS dedicated unit, even better the ones inside a car dash/radio.
No reason to rent a GPS from the car rental company.
That said, if you must have an automatic ; in order to make sure you get one you need to rent a higher class of car type.
When doing so those often have GPS's installed into the on screen radio.
Rent something like a Volvo V60 class type with an Automatic ; I would say the odds if it having a working GPS are greater than 80% without extra cost involved. Just don't ask at the counter for GPS or about GPS; as they would love to charge you daily for it.
Of course that type of rental car is going to cost you.
If you want to save on your rental car you need to rent a manual transmission car.