We are leaving Tuscany on a Saturday morning and proceeding to Venice. My original plans were to drop the rental cars near the Florence train station (we are staying just S of Florence in Mercatale val di Pesa) and train into Venice. However a friend of mine (who is a travel agent) said no, drop the car in Bologna instead, it is a nice drive & the city is easier to navigate. What do you guys think? Drop in Florence, Bologna or drive all the way to Venice? We are a two-car caravan.

We are leaving in 13 days - I can't believe I'm still waffling on important details!!! I appreciate your advice.

Lisa

Well, you already have a car, you already paid for it... Why don't you drop it in Venice and save the train ticket?

It seems that most Saturday drop offs need to occur by noon. It is feasible to drive that distance (including "lost" time)over the course of the morning? I am leary of the drive times on most websites; they seem to underestimate!

Lisa

We've had this same discussion recently with someone leaving Chianti for Venice. It can be done but to be on the safe side, you'd need to leave pretty early in the morning, say 6-7 AM or so. If that's not attractive, I'd vote for Bologna over Florence for car drop off and train pick up.

Thank you Ellens. Will search for that thread!

I would suggest dropping the car off either in Venice (only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Florence) or at the Florence airport and take the shuttle to the train station. This way you avoid driving in the city which I reccommend to anyone!

Good luck!

quote:

It seems that most Saturday drop offs need to occur by noon

Lisa-

Some offices allow you to drop off a car even when the office itself is closed; there is often a slot to deposit the keys.

It really dosn't make sense to go out of the way to Bologna just to drop a car or for that matter florence.Its a quick drive on the autostrada and a easy return to Piazza Roma in Venice (basically you go across a bridge and end up dead ending at the piazza,I don't even see how you could go wrong and don't recall any stories of getting lost),very easy to find car return office and transportation just across the street on the Vaporetto.RR

luvs2plan-did you end up dropping your car off in venice at Piazza Roma after noon? We are coming in from a villa outside Florence on a saturday and will try to get there before noon but with our two car caravan who knows? AutoEurope does say you can drop off the car even when the office is closed but I am skeptical. My husband and I had a horror story (funny now, but....) trying to return a rental car in paris (of course the drive into Paris was stupid enough!). It has definitely made me wary of the whole drop-off thing. Enough said to say dropping off the car took the bulk of a whole day and there was crying involved. Don't want to repeat with parents and children. Anyone else out there who did the dropoff in Venice with a closed office?