Upon our departure from Rome, I would like to rent a car and head North. I wanted to get close to the main highway as I do not have any intention of driving in the heart of Rome. I asked the hotel concierge for the best place to pick up a Hertz rental and this was his reply.."The best way to get A1 Highway (leading to North) is pickin' up your car at Hertz point in Via Sardegna (near Termini Station). From this place just follow Via Salaria and after 25 minutes you will be out of Rome." My question, has anyone ever picked up from this location? It seems that Termini is so close to driving in the center?? Any feedback would be greatly welcomed.
Posted by
Lodi, California, USA
149 posts
Hi Linda, pick up your car where it is most convenient to your hotel. Buy a map and head for the coast road or the Autostrada del Sol. Driving in Rome (or Paris, or Berlin, etc.) is not much different than driving in San Francisco or Chicago or NYC. Stop often at the curb or on the sidewalk to read the map, but don't worry about driving in Rome. Have fun on your travels.
Posted by
PNW
194 posts
We rented from Auto Europe last summer. I had a street map of Rome up on my screen along with all the pickup locations. The agent walked me through all the choices. Ultimately, we chose the one closest to the entrance to the ring road (on Via Dei Prati Fiscali) which gave us less city streets to navigate. We were headed for Tuscany.
It was pretty far from our hotel; took a taxi to the car rental location, which was worth every penny since those were roads we did NOT have to drive on!
Posted by
San Francisco, Ca
3 posts
Hi Linda,
I just got back from driving out of Rome today! I have to tell you it was easy enough to drive out of Rome but it really wasn't easy to drive back. First I rented a car through online reservation from Thrifty, the process was easy and I got a very fair price. You might not be able to pick up a car without a reservation since the rental cars are in the high seasons right now specially for a automatic car, they are expensive and they don't have many of them in Italy. I have not pick the car from Via Sardegna but the Termini location was easy enough to get out of Rome. The other problem is that not all rental car companies can let you drop off the car in another locations so you have to double check on that. And last DO NOT TRUST THE GPS!!! My lessons today was that I didn't bring a map so I totally depend on GPS for my trip and I went to different rout that took me a lot longer and I somehow manage to get a ticket 65 euro for running around not having a pass ticket to get out of the freeway. It is very confusing to drive in Rome I also missed one exit so turn me around for another 25 km and another 4.50 euro to get back in to Rome, make sure you know which toll window that you have to go. I have not completely understand it yet but I believe you drive in to a city you have to pay toll when you get out of town you have to take a ticket so when you enter the next town or toll they know the distance of place you came from, it's like how long have you've been using the freeway so they can charge you the toll fee. The reason why I got a ticket for 65 euro is because they can't understand that I got lost so they charge me total of the each tolls from north to south of Italy, at least that is what I understood. Plan your trip well and know where are you going and find out about the toll otherwise it will make your trip stressful like mine. Although, I really enjoyed visit the mountains and some old medieval towns.
Posted by
San Francisco, Ca
3 posts
Hi Linda, I just check my map Via Sardegna is a little bit away from the busy Termini, north side of Rome and right out side of the city center area. Remember check the Grande Roccordo Anularl (The ring to the Autostrade) Autostrade is the freeway that goes around Rome will take you anyway you want and also easy to get lost if you don't know sign and about the toll. Hope it helps!
Posted by
Bromley, Kent,, UK
1829 posts
We have always picked up from and returned the car to FCO airport. It is fairly painless to get to the autostrada and avoids any city/suburb driving. There are some very good step by step instructions on the Slow Travel site which are spot on.
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/car_rental_rome.htm
Also has tips about picking up in Rome.