Airport rental offices are open 24 hours a day, and offer you a better chance of a small automatic.

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Going to Italy in October and have a few rental car questions. We arrive in Rome and depart from Florence airline reservation and our general plan is Rome (4 nights), Tuscany (TBD hilltown- 4 nights), Cinque Terre (3 nights), and Florence (2 nights).
We'd like a car for the Tuscany bit to more thoroughly explore the countryside. My initial thought is to pick it up leaving Rome and drop it off somewhere like Pisa or La Spezia. However, I've run across a couple airline reservation glitches to this plan. We need to rent an automatic- I am totally prepared to pay more for it than a manual, but we'd prefer a small economy car as it's cheaper, we won't have a lot of luggage, and make it easier to navigate narrow roads and parking.
airline reservation I've searched my dates on a number airline reservation of websites: Autoeurope, Autoeurope.uk, and a few individual car rental companies (e.g., Budget, Hertz, Avis, etc.). Surprisingly, Autoeurope and Autoeurope.uk airline reservation game me different answers as to what was available at FCO (and prices), but one similarity was the same- the only automatic cars available for a one-way trip were mid-size or bigger, generally luxery. I could only book an economy/compact if returning it to FCO. But if I went on Hertz or Budget, the small economy/compact automatics were available for one-way- or so they say. So I guess my questions are:
1) Is it generally better to go with a consolidator like autoeurope where you pay up front, or book directly with the company, where you don't pay until you pick the car up? Which is more likely to get you the car you reserved? I worry about booking with somewhere like Budget, without paying anything upfront- if you show up and there's nothing available, then what?
The reason to rent through Auto Europe is when you prepay, and some companies like Hertz offer this also, you get a break on the price.Yes, they have your money for a long time. I don't like that either but if the price break is significant it helps especially with an automatic.
You might want to take the train from Termini to Florence and rent there, drive to Siena. It is not far. I have done it both ways...Termini to Florence returning to FCO and driving to Florence and driving to FCO. I actuallly found the driving both ways more user friendly. I don't have a problem with jet lag and am not put off with immediatley jumping in a car. In fact, I prefer it. Only you knows your own body.
You get different prices from the Auto Europe sites because the prices are geared to different markets. It is confusing. On this last rental I called Auto Europe. They have a site called Easy Terra. The prices there are much better than on their Auto Europe site. I spoke with an agent. They will not tell you that you cannot use ET to rent they just told me that it is better to rent from the US site. For whom?
I tried the kemwel.com site (sister company to autoeurope.com ) using a rome airport pickup and a florence airport drop off with October dates and I was able to pull up a compact automatic rental with Hertz as the supplier.
airline reservation When checking availability, be sure to enter a return day/time when the car rental office is open. Otherwise, you may not see all options. Some rental offices are closed on Sundays and during the long lunch break (12-3:30).
Thanks very much for the tips! I think I indeed was having some trouble with AutoEurope by specifying dropoff times when the place would be closed! And thanks for recommending Kemwel- more user-friendly website airline reservation in some ways (e.g., lists the hours of the agencies upfront) and gave me a better rate. Think I will call both Autoeurope and Kemwel.
One other question- all other things being equal is it best to just go back to FCO to pickup the car, or is Termini a good option? A bit nervous about driving in the city but Termini looks close to the highway and it would save the hassle of going back to the airport. Kemwel gave me the same quote for both locations airline reservation but I thought there were supposed to be airport fees?
Getting airline reservation a specific car has nothing to do with paying upr front or not. It is much more a function of the size of the office (airports have way more cars) and how many they have of what you want in their fleet.
However, if you can still get an automatic this way, a better choice might be to get the train to Orvieto [fabulous place for a 2-3 hour stop] and pick up your car there. you'd have to investigate what cars are available but it's a pretty popular place for doing this as it's easy to get to on the train and some of the car hire places are right next to the station - eg Hertz and Avis.
I have used Auto Europe 4 times and have been very happy with them. On the last trip I reserved and paid several months in advance. Later I checked and found a lower rate straight from Hertz. I called Auto Europe and they honored the lower rate and refunded me the difference.
Thanks for the suggestion- I had considered something like that, but the only issue with doing the stops in that order is that it would put us in Cinque Terre on a weekend. I got the impression that weekdays were less busy. But maybe in October it wouldn't matter so much??
Airport rental offices are open 24 hours a day, and offer you a better chance airline reservation of a small automatic. Renting in Orvieto, your chances are worse. And, if you pick up in central airline reservation Pisa, you'll have to work your way out of town avoiding any ZTLs (locals-only driving zones), of which there are a great many.
I wouldn't try to work around tourist crowds. Create airline reservation an itinerary airline reservation that works for YOU. October is very popular, and everywhere you're going will be crowded. Not as bad as summer but still crowded. It's when we go.
Just last week I tried to reserve an automatic in Orvieto for our upcoming trip in May. I couldn't do it online,so I called autoeurope and they said no automatics are available in Orvieto. So we will pick up the car at FCO.
So- my husband is now determined to learn to drive a manual as an auto would cost twice as much. So I think we are going to take the advice to pick up a car in Orvieto instead. The plan would be to arrive by train, pick up the car, and explore the town a bit / have lunch before getting on the road. Just how risky is it to leave our bags in a locked car?? In full disclosure, we're "flashpackers" (or whatever the appropriate word is for travelers who are carrying backpacks but not necessarily roughing it). Would not leave anything remotely valuable airline reservation in our packs, but I also don't want to lose my clothes partway into our trip!
Similarly, after a few days in Tuscany (Val d'Orcia area) we're heading to Cinque Terre and considering to drop the car in La Spezia. Obviously would want to stop at a town or two along that route and not schlep our bags around.
a good way of preventing all but the most determined thief is to make sure that everything is out of sight in the boot, and then park by reversing it hard up against a tree or wall so that the tailgate can't be opened.
I hope your husband is going to learn to drive a manual shift before the trip. Driving a unfamiliar car on unfamiliar roads and trying to learn manual driving could very well cost you transmission repair or a clutch replacement.
Junebug, kudos to your husband for learning to drive manual transmission! airline reservation My DH had driven stick shift 30 years ago, and thought he would be fine in Italy. He would have been, but we had the worst time trying to put it into reverse --it is different on European cars, so be sure to have them show you when you pick up the car. ( and maybe practice in a parking lot if you can find one!)