Renting a car in Rome; dropping it in Florence

And be exceedingly careful of the ZTLs in Florence or you will have an expensive surprise twice, when you have been home for a while.

Mandatory IDPs.

We just got back from Italy 1 1/2 weeks ago and rented a car from Rome at Termini train station and took it back to Florence near the train station. Actually I was a little nervous of driving out of Rome hearing about the traffic and tzl. We did it and it was not bad at all,
as it didn't take us through city. We were going to Tuscany and the GPS took us out of Rome with no problem and we were never in any traffic. In Florence the gps in car wasn't always accurate so we used goggle maps on my phone and she got us to car rental return without any problems. I reserved a car through Hertz and when we got there the line was a 2 to 3 hour wait. National was next to them with no line so we got a car through them and cancel the Hertz. We didn't feel like waiting 2 hours in that line.

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You could get lucky with traffic or not. But I'd consider Orvieto rail station to be the more simple and painless pick-up spot.

Thank you, all! Orvieto sounds like the "safest" way to go, so will do that!

We dropped the rental car off at Florence airport rather than inside the city. There is a regular bus from the airport to the central train station and a shuttle from the airport terminal to the rental area. That area is tangled in access roads, and the offices are cramped when busy. Hertz did have the longest line when we were there too.
For exploring the hill country, look for the biggest possible road map, as if you intended to invade. Away from the expressways the roads are steep and narrow and often the signs are inscrutable to those who do not speak Italian. Even GPS is not foolproof (my group often felt like fools.)