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
)
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