Renting a Scooter in Tuscany

Laura:

This has been discussed a few times on this site - you might do an advanced google search (the instructions are in one of the highlighted posts on this topic heading).

Here is my input:

We were in Tuscany with two other couples in the fall of 2007. Two of the fellows rented scooters. Bad idea. First, the scooters that are available for rent are underpowered - cars on the secondary country roads were blowing by them at a frightening rate. Also, a big part of the charm of Tuscany are the hill towns. They are called hill towns for a reason. Those hills are steep and the little motor-scooters barely made it up the hill (I am talking less than 10 mph). There is not a lot of room on those little country roads. I doubt they would have made it up the hill if there were two on the scooter.

The next day the fellows were just too happy to return the scooters.

The place that we rented from was in Greve (between Florence and Siena). They did not require any special license - just a credit card for the deposit.

The scooters were simple enough to ride. I am sure they would have been great if we were staying in Greve (which is on the flat valley floor) instead of the hill towns.

Just one traveler's experience and opinion. Have fun.

Francis -

If you mean me - we were staying in Panzano - about 8 kms south of Greve on the S222 (the Chianti road). Greve was the closest large village that had scooter rental.

Here's a recent discussion of this subject:

click here

A 125cc scooter is the largest that one can rent in Italy (for two people) without an Italian motorcycle license.