Travel between Venice and Florence

Picking up a car in Venice involves less big-city driving than picking up or dropping in central Florence. You'll pay some highway tolls, but no extra for the car rental itself, and won't spend $30-60 one way, per person for 2nd-class train tickets.

The train is so easy. You need to relax on your honeymoon, why stress with driving?

I would recommend the train from Venice to Florence, then rent the car to get to your B & B if it's outside Florence city limits. You don't want to drive IN Florence.

Having flown into Florence several times, and taken the bus to the train station, I can tell you I would never want to drive in the city limits.

Plan ahead and buy your tickets now (as long as it's within the time frame) for both Venice-Florence, then Florence-Venice.

The train station is both cities is centrally located, and it's so easy to walk from there to see all sights.

Here's the link to get your fast train tickets http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=4ddd1a035296f310VgnVCM1000005817f90aRCRD

Just know you do NOT have to register to buy a ticket, skip that step when you get there.

You'll save vacation time, and probably money, by flying into Venice and then later flying out of an airport near your final destination, for example Pisa or Milan. Use the multicity option on the search engines to find that type of flight.

You don't mention how much time you have, but I'm puzzled about why you're flying into Venice and then immediately leaving the city. I spent a week in Venice on my first trip, and it certainly warrants at least 2 or 3 days if you can make the time. It's a wonderful city for recovering from jet lag and exploring.

I would then take the train to Florence and rent a car only after you're done with Florence, when you're ready to start exploring Tuscany. I don't remember car rental agencies near the Florence train station. My suggestion would be to take a bus to the Florence airport and rent the car there. That way you don't have to deal with Florence traffic or the driving restrictions/fines.

Two advantages of taking the train from Venice to Florence. 1) The train stations are both in very convenient locations, and, 2) the Frecciarossa train moves along at 300 Kmh. That's a good 3-4 times faster than any car. If you plan at least 90 days in advance and are willing to accept non-refundable tickets, you can get fares on this very fast train for 19Euro. You can get a rental car at this rate. Secondly, the historical areas of Florence are restricted driving zones (ZTLs). You should read about them before attempting to drive in Florence. Very expensive tickets.

You can immediately transfer to a train to Siena in Florence or walk about 800' to the SITA bus terminal and take a bus to Siena or any one of a half-dozen other Tuscan towns. You can easily rent your car in Siena. You don't indicate how long you will be in Tuscany so its difficult to assist further with driving around there.

Hopefully, you will be in Venice for at least a couple of days before departing. Watch out for the very early plane departures. We get lots of questions for assistance on how to get to the airport at 5:00am in the morning for a 6:30am-6:45am departure.

Where in Tuscany is your B&B?
If it's in Florence you don't need a rental car at all.

If it's out in the countryside of Tuscany and you need a car while there, you are better off picking up the car in Venice because there are no rental car companies at the Florence station and you would need to walk 10 min from the station (with your luggage). Also the city of Florence is not easy to navigate with a car, while from Piazzale Roma in Venice it's very easy to get to the Liberty bridge to the mainland and from there get on the freeway.

The train is convenient, but it costs €43 per person one way (full Base price) and if you are going to rent a car anyway once you reach Florence, then you might as well rent a couple of hours earlier in Venice. Two or more people probably save money with a car, rather than the train. The estimated fuel costs from Venice to Tuscany is about €35-40, while the freeway tolls from Venice to Florence are about €20.

What we figured out that we have to do is fly into Venice around 11am and get the rental car there. We will stay 2 nights in Venice and leave the car parked at the airport or somewhere affordable and safe. Then drive directly from the Venice airport to our b&b in Tuscany. The address is in Lucignano near San Gimignano. Would we have to pay those tolls for this drive? We'll be staying 8 nights and driving back to Venice to stay one more night, then leave the next day.

Should we not use the rental car to drive for our day trip to Florence? I suppose we can ask the owners of the b&b the best way once we are there.

Thank you for the advice! SO appreciated!!

If anyone wants to suggest a Venice hotel that is affordable, we are open to ideas!

PS the reason we have to rent the car at the airport we fly into and out of , and the reason we have to use the same airport for both flights is because it saves money through delta to do it that way.

If you are flying into Venice, there is no need to rent a car right away.

Take this: http://www.veniceairport.it/en/transport/water-bus.html from the airport into Venice.

Parking in Venice is expensive, this saves you $$

Rent your car from http://www.autoeurope.com pick up at Piazzale Roma (Train station)

Drop off at the Airport: use the drop at a different location button.

My general rule of thumb about renting cars in Italy is to do it only when you need a car to get to your destination(s). Otherwise take the train. Much more relaxing and you don't have to worry about the dreaded ZTLs, parking, finding a bathroom, getting lost, falling asleep, etc., etc.

Really, the simplest way is to do as Roberto suggested. Go into Venice without the car, and pick one up at Piazzale Roma when you leave Venice. Mother vaporetto will take you right there. Picking it up in Florence would involve a taxi or other transfer from the train station to the rental car pickup. And then you need good navigation skills to avoid driving into the ZTL area. Venice doesn't have those, you just drive from Piazzale Rome straight across the bridge and onto the Autostrada.

It makes no sense to pick up the car when you arrive in Venice as you will pay €€€ for parking and then still have to get yourselves and luggage from the parking place to the vaporetto to your hotel. Not fun.

Yes there are tolls on the Autostrada but they are not huge.