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When to return the rental cars?

Posted by (Wisconsin) on

Our upcoming friends trip to Italy starts with a week at an agriturismo in Tuscany, with rental cars. After that, the rest of our time is split between Florence and Rome. The plan has been to drive to Florence after we check out of the agriturismo. We want to get there early, which is easiest to do on our own, with cars, rather than waiting for a car rental place near a train station to open and then taking the train to Florence. We'll return the cars outside of Florence (airport location) and rely on trains for the rest of the trip.

Now part of the group wants to try to work a really brief visit to the Cinque Terre into the trip, staying one night in LaSpezia, after checking out of the agriturismo and before joining the rest of us in Florence. What works best for them?

(1) Drive to LaSpezia, return their rental car on arrival, cab to hotel, have the hotel store luggage, spend the day in CT, take the train from LaSpezia to Florence the next day
(2) Drive to LaSpezia, keep rental cars, park near hotel with luggage locked in the trunk, spend the day in CT, drive to Florence the next day and return cars at the airport there?

Posted by
1816 posts

Number 2 but drop the luggage in the hotel before parking, or get a hotel in La Spezia with a parking garage such as Hotel Corallo. The next day stop in Lucca for 3 hours on the way to Florence.

Posted by
4105 posts

If they drive into La Spezia, make them aware of the ZTLS.
Which result in fines if driven through.

http://urbanaccessregulations.eu/countries-mainmenu-147/italy-mainmenu-81/liguria-region/la-spezia-ar

For this reason, I recommend dropping the car on arrival.
Taxi to a lodging near the train station. Then train to Ct. Train to Florence after visiting the CT.
Train and drive times in this instance are comparable. the train station in Florence is in the city center.

Posted by
1816 posts

There's no ZTL in La Spezia per se as yet. Just don't drive into streets with Do Not Enter signs.

Posted by
4105 posts

Mike,

You might want to read the link I posted. Have been many times in the past, and there weren't any. It's now enforced.

Posted by
1816 posts

Thanks Gerri, you are correct, there is a ZTL. However it's not large and only enforced with cameras at two of the entry points and only starting this week. Either way, the ZTL is fairly small, and humanely signed and mostly involves streets that would raise suspicions for an attentive driver.

Posted by
470 posts

Thank you, Gerri, for the link to the info about the ZTL. It says that hotel guests are exempt, and later says to contact the hotel for information on how to avoid the fine. Once a hotel is booked, we can ask what their guests have to do to get the exemption.

Posted by
16232 posts

If it's just a day I would drive to Monterosso (which has parking) and stay in Monterosso. Then drive to Florence and return the car at the airport (since you will pass by it coming from the Cinque Terre on the A11 freeway.
Why would you want to stay in La Spezia. Life is too short to stay in ugly port cities.

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