Route from Rome to Chiusi - Car vs. Train

I would rent from a car rental location in Rome itself. That way you avoid the high airport fees charged if you rent from FCO. The rental offices near the Tiburtina station are easy to get out of town. There are also other locations that aren't bad. Just try to rent mid morning when the traffic is less since people are at work or school.

There are many direct train departures and ticket price per person starts from €10 on regional trains or more on some fancier trains (although travel time is similar); see www.trenitalia.com. Driving is also "direct," basically all on the autoroute, but with tolls; see www.viamichelin.com for a toll estimate.

Sometimes we recommend paying for only one item in a day - either car or train but not both. However, car does come with some costs (tolls and a bit of fuel). In addition, the time that you pick up needs to pretty closely match the time you plan to drop it off, or your rental rate would be calculated for another full day.

I would take the train to Chiusi. The car rental agency (Hertz) is right across the street from the station. Very easy access. And, the pizza place in the train station has wonderful pizza!

Another vote for taking the train direct to Chiusi and picking up the car there... it's very, very easy to do it this way. We picked up the car around 11am and drove to our rental from there, on one of our first trips to Italy.

Thank you to everyone. We need to leave early so renting from the train station may add too much stress to our first time Italian driving experience.

Taking the train to Chiusi seems the best option ... and sounds like we could walk to Hertz rental office from station? Yes?

Would EuropCar rental be a equally good option in Chiusi?

Yes, you could walk right across the street to the Hertz office. I am not sure where the Europcar office is, but it might be in same area.