tuscany without a car

Why did you decide to forego the car rental?

You'll be giving up a lot of flexibility when you give up a car.

An agriturismo is a working farm, so usually at a distance from the city. Occasionally near a bus stop.

Sometimes hosts will pick you up at the train station, but are you desiring car service from them? Or are you planning on hiring a taxi for transportation?

I would rethink the carless option.

Think a place outside of the towns will not have easy train or bus access.
If you found such a place where the owners would pick you up from the main town bus or train station and drop you off at the end ; which seems reasonable and I sure you could find that. Really not any different than just having a taxi take you there and back though and doesn't limit your lodging options.

B&B or agriturismo out in the country with no car ; you would be stuck on their property the entire time, cannot imagine that being very enjoyable.

If you don't want to rent a car, then you should stay in Florence or Siena.
For small towns/countryside you need a car.

Frances Lodge is a delightful B&B that sits just above Siena and is within easy walking distance into the town !

This way you could train in and enjoy Siena.

But, everyone is correct that if you desire to see ANY other villages or hilltop towns, you do need a car. Driving is not difficult and allows you to travel all around Tuscany.

Without an automobile, you may as well just stay in Florence and look for tours into the countryside.
The roads are well paved throughout Tuscany and easily navigated--even though they're a little crooked. Traffic is somewhat light on the backroads, and we had no problem getting to our destinations.

We had decided to forego the rental car because of high prices on insurance coverage and crazy high deductible if something were to happen. Although, Tuscany is one of my must see destinations on this trip, so I might have to rethink that. Thanks for the input.

Did you get your insurance information from RS Tips? (https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/car-rental-cdw)

Don't give up quite yet. We rented through Hertz charged on our AMEX. With a little investigation we were adequately covered for an amount that didn't break the bank.

You are only going to need the car for a few days.

How are you getting to Tuscany? What do you want to see? Two nights and three days is not a lot of time.

I'd suggest that two nights is neither long enough to be bothered with a car, nor finding a place in the country with public transport access. Stay in Florence and choose easy options.

We had decided to forego the rental car because of high prices on insurance coverage and crazy high deductible if something were to happen

Think you may have understood something. In Italy insurance coverage with a deductible of approx. 1000 euro is included free of charge with every rental which is much better than in the US

There are available options to pay that deductible down to zero ; put your dates into AutoEurope.com and look at the rates with optional zero deduction or zero excess ; whatever there term is.

Or, risk a credit card may pickup the not covered deductible amount or risk it yourself should something happen,

Either way with the zero deductible option or not, I don't find the rental costs any higher in Italy than most anywhere in the US

Thanks for all of the help and comments. We will be in Italy for almost 3 weeks. We are in Florence for 3 nights and then were booked to stay in the country in Tuscany at Borgo Casato for 2 nights after that and that is when we were going to rent the car. We still have time to change that reservation if we need to. Maybe spend the 2 nights in Siena? Or another town accessible by train from Florence?

Maybe spend the 2 nights in Siena? Or another town accessible by train from Florence?

Besides Siena, you may also consider going to Lucca, Pistoia or Arezzo, via train or bus.

mhieb01 if you don't mind me asking how much would it be to rent a car for two days? I ask because I plan on renting a car in October for 5 days and the AutoEurope sight, prices out Hertz at under $200 w/zero deductible & AutoEurope is about $215.00 with it. I hear that the it is best to get "super" CDW or zero deductible. I did have to select the upgrade, but wonder if there is a hidden cost.

I wonder as an option you could rent a car for the day to do Rick's Tuscany drive, so you can at least add a check to your bucket list, while keeping the cost to a minimum.

Before you throw in the towel, check into hiring a driver for a day or two. Also can you travel the area by bus? Your B&B should be able to advise as well as the uber-helpful folks on this board.

Finally figured it out!
Heading to Italy next week. We will pick up a rental car in Chiusi after spending several days in Florence. Went through Auto Europe and secured an economy car with Budget including the required insurance for $166, but with a deductible!. I could not find any options online to request a rate with no deductible.
Decided to call Auto Europe and see if they could assist?. Anyway, got the reservation modified from Budget to EUROPCAR, same class of car with no deductible at $229 for 7 days. Hilltop towns here we come!
Peace of mind SECURED!
Let's get this party started!!

I looked up Borgo Casato. It is in a great location, convenient to both the countryside and Siena. One of the charms is that it isn't on the beaten, busy path.

You had mentioned staying in Siena. Be aware that it would be a totally different experience from staying at a country B&B/agriturismo. Borgo Casato looks like a spa/resort B&B where you could spend the day unwinding. That's totally different from walking through the streets of the old town in Siena.

You said you'll be there two nights/three days. Are you calculating in travel time. For instance, where will you be staying the evening of the third day? Depending on the travel time, you may have at most just the morning of the third day. That doesn't give you a lot of time to see the sights.

As some others have said, you can get to plenty of hill towns by bus and/or train.

Laurence: good move. Europcar has a great reputation in Italy as do Hertz and Avis.
It is recommended to avoid all others. These brands just license their name to be used in other countries so Budget's US office is unrelated and them and others you have heard of have really bad reputation's in Europe.

Kathy: Comparing your rates, Hertz direct won't sell the zero deductible option online. You can buy it if you book Hertz through Auto Europe online, otherwise Hertz will sell it at the rental counter and most definitely it is more than 15 euro ; not sure exactly how much they get at the counter but 20-35 euro per day is probably not that far off.
At some point depending on the rental period and cost risking the deductible can make sense.

There really are no hidden costs unique to Italy with the car rental. Car types are MUCH smaller though, what is classified as a compact there will be much smaller and under powered compared to a compact here. Normal rental fuel and similar policies there as they are here. Driving itself means higher costs, gas is higher, there are tolls very often and the tolls are quite expensive. Also speed traps/automatic cameras are all over the place so chance of speeding tickets or similar violations later by mail is much higher than in the US. They also have the dreaded ZTL zones which get unsuspecting tourists with heavy fines months later by mail.
Just do your research beforehand and you will be fine.

Before we left for Tuscany, I came to the RS forums for advice, including driving in Italy. I read some comments similar to the one above. They were concerning, but we we were already pretty much committed to driving. Here's what I did and what I found.

There are plenty of websites that discuss driving in Italy. I read several, including those that gave tips and showed signage. I'm a confident defensive driver who has been ticket and accident free for a long time. I also travel frequently for work, thus I find myself driving rental cars in unfamiliar areas. I decided I was up to the challenge and plowed ahead.

Car size - Unlike Disney World, Europe is not 3/5 the size compared to us. They have small cars and large cars just like we do. The intermediate car waiting for us at Hertz FCO was a Renault SUV. It was plenty big for us and could have easily handled 4 and their luggage.

Fuel - Yes fuel is more expensive in Italy. However, our Renault was diesel, which is less than gasoline and we got 50+ mpg. Petrol stations were plentiful and open 7 days a week.

Automated speed checks - There was one coming into Greve that also displayed your speed before you reached it. There's also a long straight stretch between Greve and Siena with a speed check. The speed limit is clearly marked. Avoiding getting a speeding ticket is easy - pay attention to speed limit signs and drive at or under the speed limit!

ZTL - They are always clearly marked. I also looked at maps beforehand. And knew before I reached a town if it had a ZTL and where it was. I didn't drive in Rome and Florence. Problem solved. Really, you have to be pretty clueless to drive I into a ZTL and not know it.

Tolls - There's tolls on the Autostrada and I think on one other big highway we took. It's no different than driving in the Northeast on Interstates. My wife just drove from Georgia to Orlando and spent more on tolls than we spent in Italy.

Overall I'd rather drive in most of Italy than most of America. I didn't drive Amalfi but I've driven PCH through Malibu on Sunday afternoon, which must be similar.. There are clear rules about driving on the Autostrada and everybody knows them and follows them, not like driving on Interstates here where idiots park themselves in the left lane and don't move for faster traffic.

Doug Mac,
While I agree with your overall sentiment, it is wised to be forewarned.
It sounds like you researched in advance which is why nothing came as a major shock to you and you handled it with aplomb. Think there is a big difference in being knowledgeable vs. being scared, I am trying to help travelers not scare them.

Some of your specific points though or most all of them I do have to disagree with:

****Car size - Unlike Disney World, Europe is not 3/5 the size compared to us. They have small cars and large cars just like we do. The intermediate car waiting for us at Hertz FCO was a Renault SUV. It was plenty big for us and could have easily handled 4 and their luggage.****

Italy is not different than the rest of Europe but car sizes are definitely smaller. Many European models don't exist in the US, there are larger size versions of similar cars for the US market. It is a warning for renting a car if going the compact route, as an SUV renter it is not really a concern.

Fuel - Yes fuel is more expensive in Italy. However, our Renault was diesel, which is less than gasoline and we got 50+ mpg. Petrol stations were plentiful and open 7 days a week.
Yes, fuel economy is much better on all of their cars, the smaller size and lighter weight helps with that as does most of them being diesel. As far as gas stations, they may be open 7/24 BUT if not manned good luck getting a US based credit card to work at their pumps. Which means you have to use cash and are unable to get change during a couple of hours for lunch, in the evening, Sundays and any other time the pumps are unmanned. I for example overpaid by at least 10 euro when filling my car cause I only had 20 euro notes on me and needed to return a car full around lunch time.

Automated speed checks - There was one coming into Greve that also displayed your speed before you reached it. There's also a long straight stretch between Greve and Siena with a speed check. The speed limit is clearly marked. Avoiding getting a speeding ticket is easy - pay attention to speed limit signs and drive at or under the speed limit!
If you never speed at home, it should not confuse you but wise to alert travelers there are speed traps absolutely everywhere not just in a couple of places as you mention. Just watch your speed against the posted limits and you have nothing to worry about. In addition to usually obvious speed cameras they have a system to track your mileage traveled on certain highways to track your average speed and ticket you if too high. If that was in the US folks would freak! So again wise to be knowledgeable about it in advance.

ZTL - They are always clearly marked. I also looked at maps beforehand. And knew before I reached a town if it had a ZTL and where it was. I didn't drive in Rome and Florence. Problem solved. Really, you have to be pretty clueless to drive I into a ZTL and not know it.
In smaller hill towns it is usually obvious but in big cities, that is absolutely not true, it is extremely easy to accidently turn into a ZTL zone. Cities like Florence, Rome and many others have ZTL's well beyond their city walls, some are even ZTL's only at certain times of day ; it is very confusing so best to avoid driving in such large sizes were cars are not recommend or research beforehand so you know where they are.

Overall I'd rather drive in most of Italy than most of America. I didn't drive Amalfi but I've driven PCH through Malibu on Sunday afternoon, which must be similar.
Actually nothing alike at all, the busy traffic is not the issue it is the narrow roads. The PCH is an extremely wide road which is nothing like it.