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Rental cars in Italy / returning a car to Rome

Posted by (Auckland, NZ) on

Hi

We are renting a car in Italy later this year and will be returning it to Rome. On the various rental car websites there are so many different locations to return to but which are the best / easiest to get to? We will be coming from the North.

After we drop our car off we will be staying near Piazza Navona so are we better off to drop our car off somewhere in the north of Rome and use public transport / taxis to get to Piazza Navona or is easy enough to drive through Rome to drop off closer to our accommodation? I haven't been to Rome but have heard it is better to avoid driving there.

Also, there seem to be very few cars available for rent with automatic transmission. Is this standard in Italy?

Thanks
Marshall

Posted by
16238 posts

You didn't say which rental company you are using.
The easiest to reach coming from the freeway is one near the Tiburtina station.
Termini station is also not difficult to reach.
There might be some closer (in the Vatican area for example), but you might get lost and get zapped inside some ZTL entry.
Automatic cars are not really popular in Europe and car rental companies like to keep in their fleet models that can be easily sold in the used car market. All Europeans know how to drive manual cars because they must take the test on manual cars. If they take the test on automatic cars (usually people with handicap might have to do so), the drivers' licence will specify they can only drive on automatic cars. If you take the driving test on manual cars, you can drive either type and nothing special is specified in the drivers' license, therefore everybody learns how to drive manual.
As such only few models will be available with auto transmission (the larger more expensive models) and often only at the larger locations (e.g. airports).

Posted by
23666 posts

As Roberto recommends, either train station would work well. And standard transmission are pretty standard in Italy as is the diesel engine.

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