I checked last night, and it seems all Italian rental quotes come with CDW (Collision, Damage Waiver). Is there something more we could add?
We drove in Italy last October and we didnāt have a problem. Florence was the end of our trip and we returned the car at the airport and took a taxi to our hotel. We did that at the recommendation of our friend who is from Florence. We drove all over Tuscany and Umbria. At first we were a bit nervous about parking but itās really marked where you canāt go. It was easy parking on the outer edge of the small towns and walking in. We stayed in a small place in the countryside near Pienza and drove to many small villages and also Sienna. For Sienna there are parking lots outside and it was easy to find parking and walk-in.
If you like ceramics if youāre passing Deruta on the way to Rome they have some nice ceramic shops.
My husband did have an international license which he got from AAA. We rented through Sixt car rental and weāre happy with them.
2 Likes
Both husbands did get international license from AAA. Normally I think it is $20, but fee was waived with our trip booking. We have been to Rome and were freaked out by the crazy drivers there. Iām much more worried about Rome than the countryside. Our tentative rental reservation is with Enterprise, from Florence airport.
The rental car drop off and pick up in Florence are outside the airport and it was very easy to find.
1 Like
Adding the most stressful driving of the trip eas in La Spezia. We didnāt want to take the car to Cinque Terre so we left it for a few days in a parking garage. Stressful getting in and out of that small city.
1 Like
Just got back from our fourth trip to Italy.
A couple thoughts:
Overall, I prefer highway driving in Italy to the US. The rules are basically the same, but almost everyone actually abides by them so traffic moves so more smoothly. For example, the vast majority of people use the left lane for passing then quickly move back over to the right. Very rare to come up on someone just cruising in the left lane and if you do they are probably a non-Italian tourist.
Flip side is there is a lot of construction on the weekdays. We did multi-hour drives where I would estimates roughly 50% of the drive was through construction zones, none more than a few miles long. So you would go for a few miles of clear road, hit construction for a few, then clear for a few, rinse and repeat. This was particularly true on the highways north and west of Florence, and less true of the main A1 that runs from Rome to Florence. Also expect a lot of tunnels. We stopped counting at 200 during this trip (noting we did over 1,000 miles).
If driving, be hyper-aware of the ZTL (limited traffic zones). The problem is they are poorly/subtlety signed in some towns and there is no government resource or single website that shows them all. Also, none of the major navigation system consistently identifies them or will avoid them outside of the few major cities. But they exist in almost every city ā there are hundreds of them. You wonāt even realize you are in one until you get sent a ticket that will be close to $200 potentially even a year after your trip. We made it a point to research them for every city or village we visited and to found parking that started before we hit it them then walk from there.
Weāve really enjoyed the less well-known places outside of Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan the most. The whole country has hundreds upon hundreds of medieval or older villages and cities on hilltops with still functioning cobblestone streets. So much preserved history and so appealing.
Unpopular opinion, but my wife was disappointed with the Italian (and French) Riviera. Itās an amazing spot for anyone who wants to mix a little beach time with dining, shopping, clubbing, crowd watching, etc. But the beaches themselves (at least the many we visited) are not in the same league of sandy beaches of the Caribbean, Hawaii, Mexico or many other Americas destinations. Nice (the place) wasnāt even sand at all ā it was little river-like rocks all the way to the waterline. Itās a beautiful place to visit, but not the best place to enjoy the beach or water.
FYI, there is no border control by car between Italy and France so you can easily drive back and forth between them.
3 Likes
For folks reading along and not wanting to drive in Italy, this was my proposal (flexible but pricey). The add-on costs for stop(s) are per vehicle, not per person.
Ignore that 87euro in the ad - itās much higher once you get into the siteā¦655euro + stop(s)
Colorado_mom - would a bus tour work at all?
Possibly, if we could take our luggage along. Original plan was to do a bus tour or two while in Florence.
Yikes, thatās expensive!
For all the stress about ZTLās in the core older parts of cities, driving between cities was a pleasure in Italy. Easier than in the US, and prettier. Our rental SUV (would have been cheaper with a sedan) averaged $80/day all-in on taxes and fees, inclusive of the fee to return it to a different city than we picked it up. Florence to Rome is just a few hours, most of it on their main A1 highway. Iāve now done that route 3 times, including 2 days ago. I would rank it as materially less stressful or complicated than driving to from central NJ to NYC for my work ā more on par with just doing 3 hours cruising on I-80 or I-10 (not through a major city).
2 Likes
Thanks for your feedback. Any hints about the driving as we approach Rome/airport?
Weāll be dropping off the car and staying the night at the nearby Isola Sacra Hotel (with airport shuttle). So we are thinking about planning a dinner stop before Rome, coming in later and hopefully avoiding rush hour traffic. But perhaps in a tourist city like Rome itās always busy (?)
On our late morning approach to Rome (arrived around 10:45am) from the Florence area Friday we never encountered traffic heavy enough to slow the speed limit, all the way to the airport. I donāt know enough about their traffic patterns to know when itās backed up ā I do recall some stop and go traffic on a previous trip during the morning rush hour ā but its definitely not persistently bad like LA is.
As you probably know, Rome has ring of highways around it, similar to the beltway in DC. So we never even saw Rome this trip ā the highways steered pretty well clear of it to the north and west on the approach to the airport.
We originally planned to stay at a hotel near the airport too and return yesterday, but there was a baggage hander strike Saturday that grounded planes so knowing that we pushed up our return to Friday and drove straight in that morning. The area around the airport is fairly suburban/rural, so easy to get around. The one think we encountered ā I used Waze extensively for navigation during the trip and overall it worked incredibly well. However, Wave (and Google Maps both) are wrong about where the rental car return is at the Rome Airport. On previous trips I just relied on signs on the final approach which correctly steer you to the rental car return in the airport itself (inside their parking structures, accessible from pedestrian bridges to the terminals). This time I ignored the signs and used Waze (which exactly matched my Google Maps search the night before), which directed us to a parking lot a mile or two beyond the airport when you select ārental car returnā for the airport. I presumed they had changed that since our last trip a couple years ago, but they are just wrong ā itās still in their airport itself. So ignore Google/Waze as you approach the airport and use their clearly marked signs which were easy to understand even for someone who reads no Italian.
The highway-side stops with food options will be kind of the equivalent of fast food quality, like in the US. If thatās your expectations, no problem. Otherwise, you might find better food at the hotel or within walking distance in Fiumicino.
1 Like
ITALY TRAIN TICKET STORY
It can be hard to book train tickets in Europe. On a prior trip years ago we waited until the proper time window (I think 90 days prior) and then got all the way through our selection only to have the US credit card rejected. So it. was great that our AAA agent could help us this time with our post-Viking train adventure from Basel. (We considered flying, but no direct flights.).
No direct train from Basil to Florence, but by using Rome2Rio (helpful app!) we were able to find the a reasonable option. (It had only two legs, not three which was often the case. And 40 minute layover in Milan station instead of just 4 minutesā¦ per research we knew you have to hustle up/down stairs to get to a different track in those 4 min).
AAA agent booked it, and we paid and went home with 4 printed tickets for the two couples. A few weeks later the other couple realized the printed tickets were only for first part (Trenitalia Basel ā> Milan) although we had paid for the full itinerary.
The Trenitalia Milan ā> Florence leg is only available electronically. After searching, my husband found the e-ticket in his gmail, but buried in some kind of spam folder.
Speaking of train stories, we took the train from Rome to Pompeii for a day trip years ago. Itās a very fast luxury train from Rome to Naples but you have to transfer at Naples to a local train to the Pompeii station. This was much cheaper and faster than taking one of the many private companies that offer shuttles and organized tours, and it was less precarious than navigating some dicey roads by rental car. That said, the ālocal trainā was more like a NY subway. Standing room only, not clean or fast. The kind of train you keep your hands in your pockets to protect your phone and wallet. It was fascinating to see the non-touristy graffiti and worn down stops through greater Naples once, but I wouldnāt do it this way again. My advice to something doing Pompeii from Rome as a day trip is to do the high speed train to Naples (and back), but do a private car from the Naples train station to Pompeii and back.
3 Likes
Thanks for this. Iām headed to Italy in September and the private car is exactly what I decided to spend an additional 110 Euros on. After the fast train from Florence, weāll spend a couple hours in Naples finding the best pizza (!) and going to the national archeological museum before getting picked up by the private car to go to Sorrento.
2 Likes
I used Rome2Rio app too! I printed the QR code/ticket for all my pre-booked Italian train trips in a folder to take with me (just in case app didnāt work, lost service, etc.)
We are traveling with another couple, and we each have copies of the othersā tickets. Maybe overkill, since also on husbandās phone.
1 Like
Haha - I made duplicates of our printouts for my husband, too!
When there is a lot riding on something (e.g., prebooked train ticket with no opportunity to replace) - I feel a little duplication is peace of mind!!
2 Likes
This is the type of thing my husband would laugh at me for but be very happy if needed. Cheap insurance in my book.
2 Likes
Iām a fan of Rome2Rio for planning trip, including train travel. (Then we had our AAA help purchase the tickets).
A friend just sent me a link to seat61 with helpful, detailed info (you pick your start/end location)
Example
1 Like