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Renting car for the Tuscany Experience! Where?

Posted by on

We went to Florence last year-spent 5 nights-wanted to drive and experience Tuscany but did not research car rental, etc. so chose to stay in Florence.

THIS YEAR! planning a trip to Rome, first part of May, train to Florence (2nights), train to CT (3 nights) then...
Can we rent a car in La Spezia ( or is another place better/easier?) and drive to Volterra/San G, (2 nights) on to Montepulciano for 4 nights. The question is where would be the best place to return the car and catch a train to Rome for return flight? I would think a small town would be easier than going back to Florence to rent a car....

We hope to follow the RS driving tour and see the vineyards, tasting wine - the whole Tuscany experience...I just want to have all planned to reduce stress of getting/returning car and driving, etc. any help appreciated!

Posted by
8319 posts

I would suggest you check into a Hertz rental in La Spezia. Join their free frequent renter's club and you'll get a discount. AutoEurope.com often uses Hertz for rentals, so you can check to see which has the lowest prices.

A great place that's popular for turning in cars is Hertz in Orvieto. The roads from Tuscany down there are excellent. The train station is across the street from the Hertz office. Local trains run frequently and it's only a 70 minute ride into Rome Termini.

Posted by
108 posts

Thank you so much for all the great information and advice!

I will check into everything and this way will save us so much time!
I thought I might have to return to Florence to rent and return the car...more time now to explore Tuscany! I really appreciate your help!

I assume I should set up and pay for the car rental online before I leave?

Thanks again!

Posted by
11569 posts

We have been renting our cars in Europe for 20 years from AutoEurope.com in Portland, ME.
Call them if the website doesn’t answer all of your questions. They use major car rental agencies from the U S and Europe and have all the info you need.

Posted by
1174 posts

David has excellent advice as usual.

We rode the train from Varenna into La Spezia, rented our car with Hertz (which we had secured online before we left the US) and then returned our car at the Hertz rental right at the train station in Orvieto. Perfect solution !

Posted by
12 posts

We rented in Sienna and it was nice and easy to do. This was a few years ago, we returned it to the Florene airport. If you go on Auto Europe site, they have the different locations shown for areas. We have rented from them multiple times and haven't had any problems. You might check around the train stations in the towns you will visit, I know last year we returned one in Bordeaux by the train station and picked up one in Caen.
As to wineries, I emailed a few wineries in the area you will be in, and they were very nice and accommodating to have us come visit. Some were family run and it was nice because it was just us a lot of the time and maybe the owner or winemaker. This last year in France I also went on tripadvisor and made contacts with wineries for times to visit and again emailed them. They had more tours scheduled and we were able to join some but gave us the time and date to be there.

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