Car rental insurance going into Italy - confused

I did a lot of research on this before our trip to Europe last fall. We rented through Gemut, and the agent we spoke to assured us that renting "in" Italy and renting outside of Italy and driving "into" Italy were two different things. "In" Italy mean you have purchase mandatory insurance and credit cards don't cover. Driving "into" is covered. I also spoke with American Express's car rental insurance program (more coverage than our Visa) and they confirmed the same thing. Since we rented in Frankfurt and returned the car to Florence, we declined Eurocar insurance. The one way drop was expensive, but for us we wanted to road trip through Germany, Austria, Switzerland to Italy. Be sure to read the fine print in the policy to understand what to do when you pickup, drop off, or in the event something happens.
We also looked at including CDW with our trip insurance, but I think either it didn't include Italy, or was more expensive than American Express (17.50 for teh whole rental period).

Thanks, Karen. You certainly did your homework. On my part, after another round of frustrating calls to Avis, Hertz and American Express (where no one seemed to know anything regarding my question), I found a very helpful person with Visa and she basically confirmed what you wrote! In addition, she said that Visa had limited coverage in Italy but the bottom line -- read the fine print and ask questions before you go. Thanks, again.

Any car driving in, into, through, via, passing, crossing Italy must have at least third-party (RLC) insurance. Actually such requirement is common pretty much everywhere in Europe. So your rental car will likely have that protection already. You can always check the European insurance form that is mandatory in all car documents. They have a big "X" marked in countries where coverage is included. The symbol for Italy is... I

Yes it is mandatory to have car rental insurance in Italy and Visa has limited coverage in Italy.