We will have a rental (picked up in Florence) for our few days in Tuscany (staying in Montepulciano). My question is the return. We need to get back to Milan for our flight out. I'm debating about driving to Siena and returning there - thinking it's a smaller city and easier to drive into. Then we'd take the train to Milan. Or trying to see Bologna. I'm concerned about driving into Bologna and getting to train station where the rental return would be. I don't want to deal with the ZTL zone and any possible tickets. Then we would spend some time in the city after returning the rental before taking train to Milan. Any suggestions would be great. We would have already spent time in Florence so not really wanting to head back there. Or any other ideas on places to go that would likely have car rentals (we are not tied to a company yet).
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16198 posts
Only 2 choices I would consider:
Return the car not in Siena, but at CHIUSI, near Montepulciano, then take the train to Milan from the CHIUSI-CHIANCIANO station. You will have one train change at Florence (Firenze SMN). The Chiusi Chianciano station is walking distance from all rental companies in town (Europcar, Hertz, AvisBudget).
Drive to Milan Malpensa, return the car, and stay in a hotel near the airport. If there are several of you traveling, this is possibly the cheaper option. The drawback is the boring 4-5 hour driving on the freeway (with complimentary traffic gridlock on the Milan Tangenziale (Beltway).
If you plan to visit the city of Milan, then no. 1 is better. If you go straight to a Malpensa airport hotel, then no. 2 might be better. But it’s up to you, I usually do no. 2 and drive from Tuscany to Malpensa (or viceversa) but I can hardly stay awake. The boredom of the drive from Bologna to Milan is overwhelming. Not even one curve on that freeway to make it interesting. Hopefully one day the self driving cars will become reality.
Posted by
Folsom, California
542 posts
We rented a car in Sienna and found it easy to pick up and return. You would probably have to go back through Florence, though, on your way to Milan.
Posted by
8 posts
To add to what Roberto said: the train line from Florence to Milan runs through Bologna (it's only 35 min north of Florence on the high-speed train). Therefore, if you all wanted to stop in Bologna for a afternoon/evening it's very do-able. You could check into a hotel near the train station, explore the historic center and eat some amazing Emilia-Romagna cuisine, then catch the 70 min. train ride to Milan the next morning. Only drawback is that you'll then need to either catch a taxi or 1-hr train ride from Milano Centrale to the airport. Of course, this all assumes that you don't have a morning flight out of Milan, in which case you could plan on spending spend the day in Bologna, then train to MXP that evening and stay at an airport hotel.
Posted by
lexington, il
4105 posts
Drop the car in Chiusi, as Roberto noted it's close to Montepulciano. Then train to Bologna easy 2 1/2 hour ride.
Posted by
OP
7 posts
Thanks everyone! We decided to stretch as much time that we can out of Tuscany. We are going to return the car to Florence and take the ItaliaRail direct hi speed train back to Milan Central. Then take another train to the airport to sleep there before our flight out the next day. Doing the hi speed train means less travel time and more fun time!!