Hi All: First question - is it necessary to get an international drivers license to rent a car for a few days in Italy?

And now for recommendations. Here is our rough trip outline for our first trip to Italy in April: We are flying into and spending our first 3 days in Rome. The plan was then to take a train to Florence, immediately rent a car, and spend about the next 5 days doing a circular trip around Tuscany (going back south first)/Pisa/Cinque Terre, and end up back in Florence, turn in the car and spend 3 days there, and then finish up with the train to Venice and the last two days there and flying out of Venice. We already have the flights booked (into Rome, out of Venice). My main question: would you recommend either taking the train only to Siena (another planned stop), renting the car there to start the Tuscan tour and still turn it in in Florence, or even to just rent a car in Rome the day we leave and just start the driving tour from there?

Thanks in advance...and I must say what a great community of travelers!!

The rental companies might not ask for an international driver's permit (the correct term), but by law you should have that or a translation of your license, which you can get at an ACI (Italian Automobile Club) office. It could be trouble if you're stopped by police and don't have the IDP or translation.

Most people here say not to break up a day's journey between train and car; it's better to get the car in Rome. You can search past messages for discussion of car rental locations where the drive out isn't bad.

It's not necessary to get an IDP, but I'd recommend it for peace of mind. If you are planning on going south from Florence to explore Tuscany, I'd definitely rent in Siena (Perugia would be nice Umbria options) I wouldn't want to have a car in the Cinque Terre, either. It would be an awful headache. I'd personally take the train for an overnight trip to the Cinque Terre/Pisa from Florence. I'll just add that it is always easier to rent a car outside of a large city--especially if you haven't driven in Italy before. Good luck!

I would seriously consider doing the whole trip by train. It costs a whole lot less, is a much more relaxing way to travel and you can get most places by train several times daily.
Sitting on the train with a bottle of wine eating a picnic lunch while watching the countryside go by is much prefered to fighting traffic on the auostrauda. I have traveled both ways and would always take the train if possible.

John, In my experience, if you don't mind driving in a different country, there are two primary issues involved in the decision whether or not to rent a car. First, is what kind of trip are you intending to make. If main town to main town, a car may not be necessary becasue you can take the train. If you want to follow your own schedule and/or visit some of the smaller or more back-road environs, then it is indispensible. [As an aside, if you are not going to be in Cinque Terre too long (i.e., why pay to rent a parked car?) a car is not that much of a hassle (although you will lug your bags further from the parcheggio than from the station)].
As to where to rent, driving OUT of a large city such as Rome is not near as problematic as driving into it to find a specific drop-off site. A good suggestion I picked up in a thread here, though, is get into the city then have one of your party hire a cab to yourt destination and follow that cab.
I've never needed an International DL in the times I'v ebeen the subject of a routine police check, but the peace of mind makes some feel better having it (watch; I'll probably be hauled off to jail or handed a stiff fine next time for not having one).

I would rent the car in Rome for the driving portion. I drove out of the city a few weeks ago and it was simple. If you don't want to drive on the autostrada, there are other roads you can use.

Thanks much for the responses. At this point (and from reading other posts) I think we are going to rent the car out of Rome and spend a few days tooling around Tuscany on our own. I'll keep ya posted!

A web site I always use for car hire is www.travelsupermarket.com, they always seem to offer the best rates. I have found that if you are a resident of the U.S.A. then the major car hire companies tend to bump up the rates. I checked Hertz and a small car for 7 days in December as an U.S. resident was 322 euro, as a U.K. resident it was 140 sterling which is about 195 euro. Travelsupermarket quoted 110 sterling which is about 160 euro, although they are U.K. based I do not think you need to be a U.K. resident to use them. In Italy you need to be aware of the insurance excesses, these tend to be in the region of 1000 euros. The car hire companies will try to offer extra insurance to reduce these excesses but this can be 15 to 20 euros per day extra. Even then there is still an excess and the windscreen and tyres are not covered at all. You can buy a seperate policy to cover all these excesses including tyres and windscreen, I use www.insurance4carhire.com who offer an annual policy, again they are U.K. based but I do not think you need to be a U.K. resident to use them. They also do a daily policy but it is mainly used by agents and has an access code, it is at http://www.insurance4carhire.com/dailypolicy/ then type 100 in the ref box. You do not need to be an agent to use it though as the company willingly gave the code to me when I asked.

Make sure you leave the final , out of the website address provided by Mick and Angela. It's just -

www.travelsupermarket.com

And thank you M&A for the very useful information! I am also at the point where I am beginning to explore rental cars for my family's trip next summer - that is if I can afford to rent a car after coughing up the exorbitant airfares that I'm seeing these days!!

cheers,

richdad

Italy by law requires an IDP.

More useful information on renting a car in Europe here. And here.

I would rent the car in Rome on arrival, return it in Venice. Do you have an itinerary for the 5 days in Tuscany? One base with day trips, or driving from point to point each day or so?

At this point we don't have a specific itinerary. Want to do Siena, Montalpuciano, Montalcino, still researching the rest.

I just want to repeat Doru's statement so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle: Italy requires an International Driver's License. It's a relatively new rule.

They are easy and cheap to get any AAA office.