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Return Car Rental in Florence or Milan?

Posted by on

Hello amazing travelers,

I've read, I've researched, blogs, forums and everything in between. I get conflicting info, so i'm putting this out to all of you for your thoughts. We will have a rental car in Tuscany, picked up in Venice. We then need to return it to either Florence or Milan, then take the train to Nice, France on July 6. We were planning to drive to Milan, then take a direct Thello from Milan to Nice (when avail to book in April). I read that the drive to Milan is boring, to instead drop the car in Florence, then train Florence to Milan, Milan to Nice same day on high speed/direct trains. I've read to avoid dropping it off in Florence, and also, avoid at all costs the Florence airport. Same for Milan, avoid the city and avoid the airport for drop off.

What is the best, easiest? We are a family of 4, mid 40's, 2 kids, tech savvy. We should be able to handle the ZTL areas, but after what I read, all it takes is one mistake and boom, big ticket later. I've also checked with the rental car agencies to get direction/assistance, Sixt, europecar, autoeurope, rentalcars.com, no help.

Thoughts? Is there another option? THANK YOU!

Posted by
11136 posts

Drop it off at Milan Linate and get a taxi to train station. Linate is not far outside of city center.
Autostradas are like our interstates so I do not know where boring comes into it. We have driven from and to Milan and don’t recall it was any chore to drive there. I think it would save the hassle of loading four people and luggage off a train, enough of a chore for me to choose taking the car into the Milan area.

Posted by
3812 posts

Meredith did you look at a map of Italy?
You would be driving north for 250 kms to Milan, to take a Thello train to Nice-Ville that goes south. That train calls at Savona, Genoa, Imperia and Ventimiglia and at couple of smaller cities on the coast. For instance, by car Genoa is 200 kms far from Florence! If you arrive close to Milan's ring road during the rush hours... Suddenly Linate won't be that close anymore!

Backtraking would make sense only if you take an high speed train from Florence to Milan, otherwise just drive to Genoa and jump there on the train to Nice.

Really, Thousands of tourists drop cars off at Florence airport every year. It's quite easy the moment you realize that rental agencies are located in a separate complex. Street view is your friend.

One more thing: the taxi from Linate would drop the above mentioned 4 persons with their luggage in front of Milano Centrale, two levels down from the tracks area
The trains from Florence and those to Nice-Ville arrive and depart from the same platforms area. I may be wrong, but I find a 5 minutes level transfer between two trains easier than looking for lifts/escalators and then dragging suitcases&family through The shopping area of Milano Centrale.

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