Car Hire in Italy - Advice

Soldato
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Hey guys,

I'm looking at hiring a car in Italy for just over a week, 17th May pickup at Pisa airport and 25th May drop off at Venice Marco Polo

Looking at something that can sit 4 people comfortably for half the trip, then only two for the rest. So nothing massive, maybe Golf/Focus sized.

Any recommendations on where to look? Are comparison websites the place to go?

I've heard excess insurance being mentioned here before, any recommendations on who I should go with?

The majority of my driving has been in and around London, will this set me in good stead for Italian driving or is it that crazy? :D
 
Soldato
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Hired a car in Italy last month, and I think we went with Enterprise. As I rmemeber, I literally Googled "Cheap car hire Pisa airport" and found this website: https://www.rentalcars.com/en/airpo...BNhrJ4nR4oKB5cx7XXUamYtza0OOhex4aAjfLEALw_wcB

Used that website in the same way I shop for car insurance - plugged in the details and dates we wanted, found a few deals, then went direct, Enterprise ended up being one of the better deals, if not the absolute cheapest.

It was just three of us for a few days, so as you do, we just booked the smallest car we could. It was pretty cheap though, even with an extra driver for a couple of days, so I reckon upgrading to a Focus size shouldn't break the bank too much. We booked a Fiat Panda, but on arrival were told we'd been "upgraded" to a Lancia Ypsilon (look it up :D)

Some things to bear in mind driving in Italy:
- Some cities operate a "ZTL" in the city centre, Pisa being one of them. It's basically like restricted driving zone for which you will need a permit to enter, or you'll face a fine. Be aware of these if you are entering cities - for this reason, although we were flying into Pisa with a view to going to Florence and then Siena, we didn't hire the car until we were leaving Florence - didn't seem much point when the cities we were visiting were fairly small and a train from Pisa to Florence was ridiculously cheap (8.60 EUR each one way for a semi-fast train, just under an hour). So we only used the car to drive from Florence to Siena and then from there to visit the surrounding countryside.
More info on ZTLs:
https://www.autoeurope.com/italy-ztl-zones/
http://www.athomeintuscany.org/2011/10/15/pisa-ztl-limited-traffic-zone/
https://www.visitflorence.com/tourist-info/driving-in-florence-ztl-zone.html

If you stay at a hotel in one of these ZTLs and inform them that you are driving, then I think they are able to register your car with the police so you won't get fined - obviously this will be something to check when booking.

- From what I did see of driving in the city centres, just keep your wits about you as there's lots of narrow streets floored with pedestrians. Parking is obviously at a premium.
- Outside of the cities, driving was no different really from any other European country - however, there is no word for "tailgating" in the Italian language. Several times we found ourselves being almost pushed along the autostrada if we dared to overtake lorries etc. And on one particular scenic drive, we nearly had a BMW climb into the boot of our hire car when we had the temerity to slow down to leave at a T-junction.
- Use of indicators appear to be optional, and indeed, frowned upon.
- Watch out for speed cameras. They are fairly frequent, even in rural areas (in fact, more so - we saw more of them as we passed through villages around Tuscany than we did in big towns), and the are not exactly easy to spot.

It's a gorgeous country. Enjoy :)
 
Soldato
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Tuscany got some of the best driving roads and scenes the country has to offer. A belt of tarmac with no other car in sight for miles up on miles and rolling hills dominated by vineyards.

It’s gorgeous. Get something comfortable but has a bit of power. We had a small hatch as it was only 2 of us, it was fun but not a particularly spirited drive. I didn’t notice an awful a lot of cameras as mentioned above and no ticket either. We drive from Florence to Sienna and some other town that skipped my mind. We did the country side roads on the way there then hit the motor way on the way back as it was short of time.

The ZTL thing is a real pain. Basically avoid hiring a car unless you are leaving ZTL cities.

I didn’t find the city roads too terrible but then again it was a small hatch so built for that kind of roads.

In terms of hiring company definitely go for one of the reputable ones. Enterprise is the one we ended with. Hassle free
 

Sui

Sui

Soldato
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If you have a card which doesn't charge for EUR transactions then check the local page for Enterprise, when I went to France earlier in the year it worked out being about £30 cheaper for a day by booking in EUR on enterprise.fr.
 
Soldato
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Thanks guys, that ZTL info is useful! I don't think it should be too much of an issue, but good to be aware of it :)

Looks like we're looking at around £215 for 8 days, for a mid size automatic (Volvo V40 or similar) which doesn't seem too bad.

Did any of you guys go for excess insurance?
 
Soldato
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Did any of you guys go for excess insurance?
never accept the excess insurance on offer from car rental firms. it almost always is stupidly expensive. have google round and pick a cheapo alternative - though it does mean you need sufficient funds available/on your card to cover the excess initially.
 
Soldato
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never accept the excess insurance on offer from car rental firms. it almost always is stupidly expensive. have google round and pick a cheapo alternative - though it does mean you need sufficient funds available/on your card to cover the excess initially.

Yeah I meant with third party :) Found a couple that seem reasonably priced, far less than the ones offered by the car hire companies!
 
Soldato
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When driving in Italy I got my excess insurance from these guys. Didn’t cost much at all and I had to make a claim too when I got almost run off the road and curbed a wheel. Paid up quickly even though the car hire company were taking liberties. They wanted more money for the curbed wheel than I could have bought a new complete set of four wheels for!

https://www.questor-insurance.co.uk/
 
Soldato
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Agree with all the above, company to choose and getting excess cover.

Also as mentioned above, trains are very easy in Italy. Between major cities i would argue better then the UK due to high speed rail and cheap fares.

That said, the drive from Pisa to Venice is quite a long one. As your out of big cities down south, driving is relatively fine - just look out for those zones. Bring money for motorway tolls!
 
Soldato
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If you're picking up at Pisa straight off the flight, there is a shuttle mini-bus to the car hire - you can walk round the corner quicker if there's a queue for the bus though. Turn right as you leave the airport building, go past the bus stops and you should come to roundabout. Turn right and the hire car building is just down that lane.
 
Soldato
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If you're picking up at Pisa straight off the flight, there is a shuttle mini-bus to the car hire - you can walk round the corner quicker if there's a queue for the bus though. Turn right as you leave the airport building, go past the bus stops and you should come to roundabout. Turn right and the hire car building is just down that lane.


Yeah we are. Cheers for that, I did read that they've moved and now you need a shuttle.
 
Soldato
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Hi guys, what's the deal with IDPs and car hire in Italy?

My understanding is an EU license is all you require, but then my car hire agreement states:

The driver license must be written in Latin alphabet.
In addition to the regular driver license, an International Driving Permit is also mandatory if the driver license is written in a language other than that
of the renting country and/or in characters that cannot be read in the renting country.


It's a little bit confusing with the "and/or"! For the sake of £5.50 I think I'll just get one.
 
Soldato
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Also, I'm taking out excess insurance. Stupid question, but it I drop the car off and they charge £400 for a small scratch or whatever, I'm assuming I'll just pay up and then claim off of my excess insurance?
 
Soldato
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English is written in the Latin alphabet so you're fine without an IDP given what you wrote from the agreement. Certainly I never got one when driving in Italy. And the excess insurance works the way you described in most cases but read the policy. One thing I found when I paid up for my wheel ding was that the hire company seemed a bit reluctant to let me keep copies of stuff I signed with pictures of the damage etc. My excess insurance company wanted copies of everything so glad I insisted at the time of returning the car otherwise my claim for reimbursement probably would have failed due to a technicality of me not having a piece of paperwork.
 
Soldato
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English is written in the Latin alphabet so you're fine without an IDP given what you wrote from the agreement. Certainly I never got one when driving in Italy. And the excess insurance works the way you described in most cases but read the policy. One thing I found when I paid up for my wheel ding was that the hire company seemed a bit reluctant to let me keep copies of stuff I signed with pictures of the damage etc. My excess insurance company wanted copies of everything so glad I insisted at the time of returning the car otherwise my claim for reimbursement probably would have failed due to a technicality of me not having a piece of paperwork.


Yeah I'm reading some proper horror stories about people paying hundreds for very all scratches, and difficulty in getting the car hire company to make notes of existing damage at the start of the hire period.

I'm going to take photos/videos of the car at the start before signing off on it, ensure any damage no matter how slight is recorded and insist on keeping copies of any proof of damage come of the end of the rental period.

Seems most people complaining about hire companies didn't have excess insurance and got stung badly!
 
Soldato
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Make sure you get damage insurance; The Italians are a mad, mad bunch; and the majority drive around in cars which are either dented, or have a scratch on every panel.

Yeah, my car hire policy covers it, but the excess is massive so I have excess reimbursement insurance just incase!

Looking into the rules of the road over there and some sections of motorways (or autostrada!) have minimum speeds depending on the lane, didn't know that!
 
Don
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Yeah, my car hire policy covers it, but the excess is massive so I have excess reimbursement insurance just incase!

Looking into the rules of the road over there and some sections of motorways (or autostrada!) have minimum speeds depending on the lane, didn't know that!

It's generally caring over there. Very few can actually drive, few can park; It's weird as for me it's the spiritual home of cars - it's like the whole of Detroit not being able to drive, or the whole of Detroit not being being able to sing / play soul music.

What a place though, great roads, great driving, just be careful in the cities.
 
Soldato
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It's generally caring over there. Very few can actually drive, few can park; It's weird as for me it's the spiritual home of cars - it's like the whole of Detroit not being able to drive, or the whole of Detroit not being being able to sing / play soul music.

What a place though, great roads, great driving, just be careful in the cities.

Majority of the trip will be around Tuscany, avoiding major cities and taking local roads, so I'm hoping it should be stress free and scenic!

I need to navigate out of Pisa airport and over to Montecatini Terme first though, it's about an hour of autostrada so shouldn't be too bad.

All my driving is in and around London though, and people drive pretty bad here, so hopefully it's not too much of a shock.
 
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