Rental cars in Italy. Why.....

[vacation fool]

You could certainly take the train to Umbria or Tuscany and rent a car. But why not just rent a car at the airport (we assume FCO) and drive. Its actually easy to drive from FCO (you do not go anywhere near Rome) and most of the rental car dealers are located inside one of the large garages attached to the terminals. If booking a rental car for 3 or more days you can often get a pretty good deal from some of the auto consolidators (these are discount companies) such as Autoeurope or Kemwel. While it seems to make sense to take a train to get your car, you may discover that many trains are not so cheap these days, and you still need to manage your luggage. For us it has always been easier to grab a car at the airport, toss our luggage in the car, and then we are off! If you get into Rome early in the morning you could even stop at a place like Orvieto for your morning coffee :)

 

 

Hank

I am willing to consider the car rental directly at the airport if we do not have to drive thru Rome. I read on a forum where someone actually posted the driving directions from the airport to Cortona. It said 97 miles and took 90 min? I have read other descriptions on house rental sites that say Rome is 2.5 hours from Cortona? Is the airport actually an hour from Rome itself or is what i read wrong? Do you know how far the airport is from either Cortona or Montepulicano from personal experience? I have read your posts on alot of threads and i know you are well traveled-you lucky guy!;) So thanks and keep the great info a comin' .....

[euro cruiser]

Cortona is about 150 miles from the airport in Rome (FCO). Using the autostrada you should assume at least two and a half hours to make the trip. You don't go into Rome at all, you take a beltway around the city.

 

I'd be willing to bet big money that the post you read contained directions from the airport in Florence, which is about 85 miles or so from Cortona, and would take about an hour and a half of driving.

[vacation fool]

Cortona is about 150 miles from the airport in Rome (FCO). Using the autostrada you should assume at least two and a half hours to make the trip. You don't go into Rome at all, you take a beltway around the city.

 

I'd be willing to bet big money that the post you read contained directions from the airport in Florence, which is about 85 miles or so from Cortona, and would take about an hour and a half of driving.

 

Thanks for confirming the distance. I knew it sounded too good to be true ;)

[Hlitner]

We have actually driven this route (twice) and also spend a couple of days in Cortona. It is a really nice town, although it probably would not be quite so popular except for the "book." We have never stayed overnight in Cortona because it just never fit into our itinerary as the place to spend an evening.

 

As we said previously (confirmed by Euro) you do not drive anywhere near Rome, You simply head around Rome's ring road until you get to the A1. Traffic on the ring road can be heavy, but it usually moves at the speed limit and is just like driving on any major city bypass in the US. Within 30 min you will be quickly moving away from Rome and out in the countryside. We love driving in Italy (have driven more then 10,000 miles within the country) and often try to avoid the fast autostrade in favor of the 2 lane country roads that go through some fantastic areas. There are many options when driving to Cortona if you want to spend extra time and get off the A1. We do strongly recommend that anyone driving in Europe either rent (or buy) a GPS. We love our GPS because we sometimes love getting delightfully lost with the knowledge that our trusty Garmin Nuvi can get us to our destination whenever we ask "her" for the route.

 

We get "flamed" on CC sometimes because we often post that rental cars are much more adventageous then trains. We think European trains are great to get from Point A to Point B, but to really see Italy you need to be out and around in a car. We now spend a majority of our time (when in Italy) in places that are generally not near train stations. Also, in recent years the European trains have become a lot more expensive on many of the longer routes..to a point when it can actually be cheaper to use a car. And finally, we travel with luggage and like being able to toss it in the "boot" without worrying about hauling it around train stations, finding a place for it on trains, etc. That being said, keep in mind that you must always protect your valuables when driving in Italy. Never leave your car if there is any luggage visable through the windows and never, ever leave valuables in a car. Of course it is the same if you use trains. Never leave your luggage alone!

 

Hank

[vacation fool]

We have actually driven this route (twice) and also spend a couple of days in Cortona. It is a really nice town, although it probably would not be quite so popular except for the "book." We have never stayed overnight in Cortona because it just never fit into our itinerary as the place to spend an evening. We are planning to homebase there as it is easily a short drive to many of the hilltowns.

 

We love driving in Italy (have driven more then 10,000 miles within the country) and often try to avoid the fast autostrade in favor of the 2 lane country roads that go through some fantastic areas. Can you share those country roads? Would love to avoid autostrada and see countryside instead. There are many options when driving to Cortona if you want to spend extra time and get off the A1. We do strongly recommend that anyone driving in Europe either rent (or buy) a GPS.We have a gps would have to get update for italy or we can rent one with the car rental. We love our GPS because we sometimes love getting delightfully lost with the knowledge that our trusty Garmin Nuvi can get us to our destination whenever we ask "her" for the route.

 

 

Hank

Thanks

[vacation fool]

vacation fool,

 

One more thing...

 

If you have not yet found a place to stay while in Tuscany, I can recommend a wonderful agriturismo (farmhouse/villa). We stayed at Villa Mazzi in Montepulciano. It is about 30 minutes from Chiusi, where we picked up our rental car.

 

Villa Mazzi is flexible with their reservations and do not require a full week stay. The owners, Loredana and Mario, are wonderful. The views are amazing and Montepulciano is a great "home base" convenient for exploring the other hill towns.

 

Their website: http://www.villamazzi.it/azienda.en.php

 

All the rave reviews on Trip Advisor are accurate. The pictures on the website are authentic, too.

 

Happy planning!

 

bobalink-just to let you know that we scrapped our idea of renting a private villa and have decided to rent the la loggia apt for 4 at villa mazzi :) how did you give loredana the deposit by wire transfer?

[bobalink]

bobalink-just to let you know that we scrapped our idea of renting a private villa and have decided to rent the la loggia apt for 4 at villa mazzi :) how did you give loredana the deposit by wire transfer?

 

Lucky you! You are going to love the view from Villa Mazzi.

 

I had to set up a PayPal account (very easy) to send the deposit.

https://www.paypal.com/

 

Please come back and give us a trip report.

[euro cruiser]

I discovered that one of my banks (Wells Fargo) will send a wire transfer free of charge, so that's how I've been handling rental deposits.

[vacation fool]

Am waiting for loredana to sent me her bank info so i can do the bank transfer.It sometimes takes 2 days until i hear back from her. I guess not everyone is on their computer as much as some of us are :) I had opened a paypal account earlier this year when i needed to pay for things for our april european trip. A few weeks after we came home, the account had been compromised so i closed it and really do not want to open another one. :(