Has anyone rented a car in Livorno?

[Summertimescallingme]

Rather than pay $600.00 to be driven around in a van for 8 hours, we are considering renting a car in Livorno and exploring ourselves. Has anyone ever driven on their own, and if so, what are your recommendations? Thanks.

[wwinfl91]

We did a tour when we were there in 2003. Remember if you rent a car that cars are not allowed in the Old section of Florence or near the Tower in Pisa so you will have to find somewhere to park the rental and then walk into both of those places. Also remember that Italians tend to drive a little different than Americans (think driving in New Orleans before the hurricane or Houston or Dallas during the rush hours). They tend to be much more aggessive than American drivers and remember that the driver won't be able to see any of the sights, they will need to concentrate on their driving.

 

Good luck if this is what you decide to do.

[Hlitner]

Yes, we have twice rented cars in Livorno,, but keep in mind that we are pretty familiar with driving in Italy having explored from the Swiss border to the Amalfi coast by car. Unless things have chaned in the past three years, there are no car rental places at the port. We have previously rented from Avis, and we had to take a taxi from the port to the local dealer. The last time we did this was about 5 years ago, and they allowed us to drop our car on the pier (hid the keys under the mat) and got on the ship. We than went up on deck and as we watched, a man drove up in a powered mini-bike. He folded up this small motor bike, put it in our car, and drove off! Great service. There were other rental car agencies that also allowed the pier drop-off. The best rental car rates are generally obtained by booking on-line before your trip..and there is generally no obligation. You should expect to pay about $100 for a single day rental....but this is a great deal if you have 4 (or even 2). We would never rent a car to go to Florence, but we like to drive towards Siena, San Gimignano, and the Chianti area to sample some wine. My only advice is that you drive to your furthest point in the morning, and than work your way back towards Livorno so that you do not have far to go later in the day. A good final destination is Pisa, because its less than 30 min from the port. As to the Italian drivers, they are both very reckless and very skilled. Two lane roads generally have 3 lanes,,, the left, right, and the line down the middle (smile).

 

Hank

[heatherzd]

We have rented a car before in Livorno and drove to Pisa and Florence. Avis has a location on the pier, about 10 minutes walking from the ship. There is plenty of parking a few blocks from the leaning tower. And in Florence there is plenty of parking in the garages of the train station or just over the river. We have already reserved 3 cars from the Avis in Livorno for our June\July cruise.

 

Pisa is about 40 minutes from Livorno. And Florence is about an hour from Pisa.

 

Heather

[Hlitner]

Heather, Thanks for the info on the Avis location. This is very good news. We will be in Livorno in about a month, but I think on this trip we will simply take the train to Lucca since we are spending a couple of weeks driving in Italy after the cruise. I am not a big fan of driving into Florence from the cruise port, or driving into Florence for any reason. The traffic in the Florence area can be very very bad (its unpredictable) and just getting to the parking garages you mentioned can become very frustrating on a busy day. And than, in mid-afternoon when most would want to be leaving to return to Livorno, you can run into rush hour problems getting out of the city. In fact, when we stay in San Gimignano (we often stay just outside of this town) and want to go to Florence for dinner, we drive to Certaldo and take the train into Florence to avoid the traffic and parking hassles. I agree with you about Pisa. On our last visit we were able to grab a free street spot on the Via Pisano right next to one of the entrances.

 

Hank

[Summertimescallingme]

Thanks for the information. Avis sounds like a good idea for us. We are not going to drive in to Florence. We are in port on a Monday, and from what I understand quite a few of the museums we wanted to see in Forence are closed on Monday, so we decided to tour around Sienna and go to Pisa. If we were going to Florence we would hire someone to take us. I will warn my husband to be careful when driving, although he scares me probably worse than the Italians!! Those of you who have rented, are these any particular places in Tuscany you would recommend?

[Hlitner]

Mathwiz, If you are going to drive all the way to Sienna (its a pretty long drive) try to find the time to visit San Gimignano. Personally, I would skip Pisa many times over to spend a day strolling through the streets of this old walled city. By the way, if you saw the movie "Tea with Mussolini" most of the background was shot in San Gimignano.

 

Hank

[Artemis]

Note, when we rented a car through Hertz in June 2004, both Hertz and Avis set up tables at the end of the gangplank for pre-reserved folks to check-in and others to book spontaneously. We had pre-reserved, and our car was waiting for us on the pier. At the end of the day, we returned the car to the pier. It could not have been easier!

 

I suggest you call Avis to request they make a note in your reservation of your arrival by {name of ship} and request for pier pick-up. As I recall, there was no upcharge for pier delivery at Livorno, but I think we paid a modest fee for the privilege to return the car to the pier at the end of the day.