Returning a car in Florence

"Would it be a better idea to turn the car in at the airport and take the shuttle or a cab back to the train station?"

Yes, probably. Or at least, what you describe (quoted above) seems to be the way many travelers do it, travlers who have either had prior experience driving in Florence or who haven't but have done enough research at sites like this to know about the big fines (~$150 each and you can get more than one in a short period of time) that Florence hands out for accidental incursions into the infamous Florence ZTL's (zones of limited traffic) which basically blanket the historical core of the city.

Technically, it's possible to locate and drive to a car rental return without violating the ZTL's, but we have received many reports, here, from travelers who have tried that but did not been successful; they didn't know they hadn't been successful until up to a year later, when they received the $150 fines (one or more) in the mail.

This link Click Here takes you to our main discussion of why most travelers, here, feel they don't want to drive into the historical core area of Florence, even just to return a car.

Last year, I dropped off a rental car at the airport and took the express bus from the airport to the train station (5 euro - about 20 minutes). Worked well, with no risk of inadvertently entering a ZTL and incurring a stiff fine.