To rental car, or not to rental car...that is the question

First of all a clarification. You don't drive from Florence to Tuscany. Florence is already in Tuscany. Florence is the administrative capital of the Region of Tuscany. You will be driving from Florence to your accommodations in the Siena area. Siena is a city in Tuscany also. The provincial capital of the Siena province (there are 10 provinces in Tuscany).

Now to your question. In your scenario, the most sensible way to do this, is to drive the 200+km (120+ miles), mostly on freeways, from Siena to La Spezia (which is next to the Cinque Terre) and return your car in La Spezia. Most car rental offices are at the port of La Spezia (to cater to cruiseship travelers). From there take a taxi to the La Spezia Centrale station (2 miles away) and take the short train ride to the village of your choice.

Bon voyage!

Nathan,

Roberto has given you the best advice possible. The drive to La Spezia is beautiful. I returned my vehicle in La Spezia without any problems. Then took the regional train to Riomaggiore where our accommodations were. The trains stop at all of the towns and run pretty frequently. Keep in mind that you will have to walk from the station UP to wherever you accommodations are. Have fun
Lorieann

It is also very reasonable to do your itineray by train (and bus between Florence and Siena). You certainly don't want a car in Siena or Cinque Terra. You could check the trenitalia.com site for train times and costs. The train in La Spezia would take you close to the smaller train that goes to the Cinque Terra. It also takes quite a bit of time to find and deal with the car rental offices. I would want a car only if I was planning to drive around the countryside of Tuscany.

As mentioned above I think driving to La Spieza, drop the car off there and then take the local train into CT is your best/quickest option.

I presume the OP is renting a car because he wants to roam the countryside in the Siena province. Why else one would stay for 3 days there? Siena can be visited in less than a day.

Finding the rental car offices in La Spezia is very easy. The freeway ends in a boulevard called viale Giosue Carducci (an Italian poet). Rental cars companies are on Viale San Bartolomeo, a boulevard parallel to Viale Carducci to the south of it. any GPS navigator will get you there without too much trouble.

Returning the car in Siena and hauling your luggage on 4 separate trains (with 3 train changes at Empoli, Pisa, La Spezia) for a nearly 4 hour journey, instead of a 2.5 hour drive, would not be my first choice.

Are you aware of the usual potentially expensive "caveats" regarding driving in Italy? For example, each driver listed on the rental form will require the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home license. These are easily obtained at any AAA office for a small charge, and are valid for one year.

You'll also have to be extremely careful to avoid the dreaded ZTL (limited traffic) areas, which exist in most towns in Italy. Each pass through one will result in hefty fines!

yes, i already have my internwtional drivers oermit from a different recent trip to saint lucia. so good there.

i booked a car - 275 for three a half days including gps through hertz. couldnt find a cheaper rate anywhere else. not great, but oh well.

yes, the ztl lanes scare me. i'm afraid i'll do it without even realizing it. any easy telltale ways of always avoiding those fine zones?

Look for signs with a red circle and the words "Zona Taffico Limitato", if you google ZTL and Italy you will finds lots of explanations and figuring out the signs.

Usually there will also be signs for parking, before you get to a ZTL. I would recommend you read up on where it is legal to park and how to pay.

This website has some good resources about driving in Italy
http://www.reidsitaly.com/planning/get_around/car_rental.html

Just a suggestion on the car rental. Check on autoeurope.com. $275 for 4 days sounds high to me. I think we paid that for 10 days on our last trip to Italy. Of course, it depends on the season, the pick-up and drop-off points, the car size, what's included . . . did I miss any of the variables? However, it's certainly worth a quick check to see if you can reduce that.

There is a website listing traffic restrictions all across Europe at http://urbanaccessregulations.eu/ and for La Spezia in particular take a look at http://www.speziapass.it/MobilitySpeziaMapWeb/mappa.html When we need to go to a specific spot like car rental pickup or return we try to look up the ZTL in advance so we don't stumble into it. But most of the time we are just visiting a town and there is parking available without driving into the marked ZTL zones.

To me Italy is strictly a public transit country. Too many horror stories about expensive tickets in the mail six months later, plus drivers there are well above average on the crazy meter. (I have driven in eight or nine countries in Europe, including Ireland and England twice each, plus Portugal). The trains were so efficient that we did Cinque Terre as a day trip from Lucca on our 2007 trip and it worked great.

hey all, been a bit since last post.

three new questions related to the auto rental issue:

1. midsize or compact car - my wife and i will have each a suitcase as well as a carry on. i am 6'3'. is the midzie worth the 60 dollar price jump for four days?

2. my wife wants to rent the gps from rental agency - but thats an extra 60-80 dollars for the rental. worth it? i tried tsking my parents garmin gps device to saint lucia and it did terribly. i even loaded it with st lucia maps before i left. it could never find the satellitre, amd the maps when it did were incomplete at best.

3. here is the big concern: i obviously know/wouldnt get hammered and drive. but i'm reading about strict rules at wineries in tuscany that wont serve the driver any wine if they came in a rented car.

is this true? just how strictly enforced is this? obviously if my wife and i are going to wineries (which we will), i want to be able to at least drink a little, and then not drink at end. i would never drive past legal limits/when i'm inabbriated.

if thats the case, i need to rethink my plans for renting a car. because that would suck. maybe even just renting a car to get from florence to siena, and returning it at the end of that date, thrn rerenting the car the day i depart for cinque terre from siena..

Your rate for 4 days seems high to me. Try using a consolidator, such as:
www.autoeurope.com
www.kemwel.com
They are part of the same corporation after a merger years ago, but check both.
Generally I spend about $200/week when I rent thru them for a compact with full zero deductible insurance. I generally pick Europcar or Hertz from their choices. They tend to be cheaper.
I think these consolidators might get you a GPS at a better price. I use my own or use my phone (Google Maps).
A compact, such as a Fiat 500L or similar is roomy enough for two. Not sure how big your suitcases are, but you can always bring down the back seat and make it all a cargo space.
I have never heard of wineries not serving wine to rental car drivers.

still not getting any cheaper. tried both of those consolidations sites. still coming up 300 dollars for picking up monday at noon in florence/dropping off friday at 11 am in la spezia (compact). no price difference at all with those consolidators (booking direct through hertz is actually cheaper with aaa cdp code, which is where i'm getting 300 dollars.

that is for a compact, with gps rented each day. i don't want to do spend money on it but wife wants it, and i can't use my phone in italy - would be way too expensive for the data to run gps for four days.

so i shouldnt have any problems with the wineries/wine places in tuscany while im the driver of a car to get there?

Just so everyone is comparing the same prices -- manual transmission or automatic ? Makes a BIG difference!

for the full four days, it is only an overall 20 dollar difference, so we jumped for the automatic. i can drive stick, but automatic for only 20 dollars more for the full four day period seemed like a worthy upgrade to me.

so i shouldnt have any problems with the wineries/wine places in tuscany while im the driver of a car to get there?

I don't know your drinking habits, nor your actual body size.

Calculations can be made based on the percentage of alcohol, your body mass, and the amount of time since the last drink as to the amount of consumption which would be legal.

I suggest that you would never want to be under the influence while driving.

Nigel,

I understand this for sure. i need to be legal to drive, and completely safe to drive. I'm not questioning that.

I just want to be sure if i drive my wife and i to the winery, that they won't refuse to serve me a glass of wine is all.