Renting a car in Italy - should I arrange from the US?

Question

Hi - We have our hearts set on driving through the Tuscan country side by rental car in italy. The only problem is we are doing the trip very 'free spirited' deciding how much time to spend in places we like while we're there. We have 2 or 3 night to spend in Tuscany, but don't know the start or end dates. Would it be better to reserve a car and change the dates while in the country or to arrange once we're there?

Answer 1

If you need an automatic I would do it from the states its really hard to get automatics. If you can drive stick which most almost all the cars are you could reserve it when you get to the country a few days before to a week before you need it (the sooner you reseve the better). i usually rent from Europcar and have never had problems. They are all over the country there website is www.europcar.com its in english and Italian and they have people that speak english that work for them.

Answer 2

You can easily arrange it in Italy with many of rental agencies that you are familiar with (Hertz, Avis....).

Answer 3

if you are budget conscious definitely arrange your can from the usa.  you can sometimes modify yr dates but check w/ the company.

if you book in italy you may end up paying double....

Answer 4

I arranged to rent a car in Florence to drive around Tuscany it seems autoeurope.com had the best deals.  We also rented a GPS which needs to arranged ahead of time but was the BEST help ever.  We never got lost and if you missed your turn it would give you alternate directions it was great.  It was free with the rental because of the specials they were offering at the time. It was going to cost $84 USD for a week but I gladly would have paid it.  We would just drive all over not really knowing where we're going if we saw a road that looked interesting we'd take it knowing we could find our way back to our apartment later.  By the way when you're in Tuscany check out Greve in Chianti the square is very nice it has great restaurants and grocery stores, bakeries and shops.  I never ate such wonderful food in my life.  There is also a wine tasting shop just outside of the square that has hundreds of wines and olive oil to try.  If I could do my Italy trip over again I would have spent more time in Tuscany (we had 4 days).

Answer 5

Car rental  is definitely the way to really get to see Italy. I would suggest you reserve a car before leaving . If you do it with one of the bigger companies you will have no problem changing dates as you go along.