Rome Districts and Car rentals

We rent our cars from AutoEurope or Kemwell. They are rental car brokers and arrange for a car from agencies such as Avis, Hertz and Europcar. You can check their rates online. I call them directly when finalizing my rental. They can help you with pick up/drop off locations, upgrades, etc. With AutoEurope, if you return the car in the same country, you are not charged drop off fees. For an easy pick up point outside of Rome, I would take a one hr. train ride to the hilltown of Orvieto. There is an agency, I believe it's Hertz, by the train station. From there it's easy access to the AutoStrada. If you have the time, I recommend spending at least a day, and maybe a night, in Orvieto. It's a small, quaint hilltown with a beautiful Duomo. Read about the town in Rick Steves' Italy tour book. Before you leave, visit your local AAA office and obtain an International Driver's License. All you need is $15 and two passport type photos. No test is required. At your local Barnes & Noble, pick up a Michelin, or similar, road map. Familiarize yourself with your route on the red roads and study the international road signs. It's also helpful to have a GPS. Check with AutoEurope to see if it's available. If you are going to Florence, do not take the car into the city. We stay outside the city and take public trans in. If you enter the dreaded ZTL zone, you will get a ticket later in the mail which can be hundreds of dollars. If you return the car in Florence, return it at the airport. Have a great trip!

I too often use AutoEurope if I have a rental period of three days or more. They often have some great rates. Denise gives you some great tips - especially about the Orvieto pick-up if you're nervous driving in Rome (and certainly after a few "incidents" driving there, I get it!) and the drop-off at the Florence airport. For some car rental pick up options, in and out of Rome, you might read this article. Unfortunately, the drop-off fees are often determined by the vendor and there are exceptions to the "no-charge" drop-off for some locations and some vendors. We've had to deal with that issue a few times... Definitely call AutoEurope if you plan on a different return location as the email they send sometimes says, "drop-off charges may apply" if you pick an out-of-the-way location. We did once and a huge "debate" followed at the local vendor when we were picking up the car! Another challenge is GPS units. Many of the rental car vendors in Italy are franchises. And although it may say Hertz on the door, it's Andrea's Hertz! And Andrea makes extra €€€€ off his cars equipped with GPS units. Thus, many franchise vendors will not allow you to do a one-way rental in a GPS equipped car. They want the car to come back! This is another reason to bring a GPS unit you "already know" when traveling in Italy! Do check with the vendor if you are planning a one-way rental with a GPS. For Maps, you might look at Maps for Italy. It has links to many Michelin maps... which we fall back on when not using our GPS. The regional Michelin maps are simply the best I've found. I probably have 10-12 of these for Italy. You'll have a great experience driving through Tuscany!

Thank you Denise and Ron.
Very useful information. We are staying in Orveito for 2 nights and touring to Sienna from there. So we will catch the train there and order a car. Any other tips for touring the Hill Towns or Cinque Terra and Venice and Florence would be greatly appreciated..... Cheers, Ingrid from Vancouver B.C.:)))

Ingrid, Having a car in the Cinque Terre is really of no use. You'd be better to either drop the car there, or use the pay parking lot in La Spezia and travel to each of the towns via the local train. Are you aware of the usual "caveats" regarding driving in Italy? Cheers!

Roma Termini is a good place to pick-up cars: they are a stone's throw away from the highway A24 (literally 3 blocks) entrance and that make driving a piece of cake (no need to negotiate medieval roads whatsoever).

Andre, I'll admit that leaving the Roma Termini car rental garage is a LOT EASIER than trying to get to it to return your car... but it's a little more than 3 blocks - more like 3 km! But I would agree with you; this route is far easier than many other options in town. I think the position of the train station tends to scare people off, but it is a great location, north of all the ZTL's! For the record, to get from the Parking Garage to A-24 you do have to zig-zag a little due to the one-way streets in the area and getting around Porta Maggiore. Here are some Google Directions: 1. Turn right out of the garage onto Via Giovanni Giolitti and head northeast 2. Turn right onto Via Cairoli 3. Take the 1st left onto Via Principe Umberto 4. Turn right onto Viale Manzoni *Now you get to Porta Maggiore and you have to go "around the piazza" ** 5. Take the 1st left onto Via di Porta Maggiore 6. Turn right onto Piazza di Porta Maggiore 7. Slight left onto Via Eleniana 8. Turn left onto Piazzale Labicano AND bear left to stay on Piazzale Labicano 9. Take the 1st right onto Viale dello Scalo San Lorenzo 10. Continue onto Circonvallazione Tiburtina
11. Keep right at the fork and merge onto A24 The good news is once you're at Circonvallazione Tiburtina, it's primarily four-lane highway. And yes, it is far easier than it reads! Now when returning a rental car, due to the one-way streets and the location of the garage, you have to come down Via Marsala. After passing the main building of the train station on your right, TURN AT THE FIRST TUNNEL on your right. BUT, and this is important, TURN ONTO THE LEFT LANE and not the right lane of the tunnel. The left lane allows you to TURN LEFT as you exit the tunnel. The parking garage is directly in front of you. It took me three laps around the train station my first time in 2001!

Ingrid, you better bone up on "ZTL's" if you are even considering driving into Sienna. (plug "ZTL" into the search engine in the upper right hand corner.) We almost always use AutoEurope, and we bring our own GPS (the only way to go, IMO!),
and a Michelin fold-out map of the Country.