San Gimignano Travel Forum

Hello,
My wife and I will be traveling from Rome to San Gimignano. We are wanting to take public transportation for most of the time we are in Italy; however, we would like to have a rental car for a few days while we are staying near San Gimignano. I am looking for the closest place to San Gimignano that I can 1) take a train or bus to from Rome and 2) which would offer a rental car pick-up once I got there.

I know that a bus runs from Rome to Poggibonsi, but I cannot find a car rental there.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated,
Hunter

Hi there,
Did you hear this old say "All roads lead to Rome". I see no reason why you should bother taking a car rental. T stress stress yourself? yeah !!! or involving a road rage in Italy, no way !!! or getting upset beasue someone jumped off the traffic light, come on. There are chargeable private motorways, other places get jammed at the rush hour, you can get lost sometimes and end up paying too much fuel. I tell you what? I have been visiting Italy for donkey's years. Leave your diriving licence behind, relax and enjoy your holidays. Italy has very good and cheap train system. The people are very friendly too (Watch for that Pick-Popocketing friendly young man), why drive when you can make friends on the way; After all, the best way to see a country is mingle with the people you are visiting their country. FEEL HOME.

You hear me !!

Bash

Thank you for your feedback. I had originally not planned on renting a car at all; however, I have heard from a lot of people that driving the Tuscan Countryside allows one to better see the sites in a limited time. We are planning on taking a train/bus from Rome to San Gimignano (or close to it) and taking a trian/bus from there to Florence and from Florence to Venice...I just thought that if there was a way to do a short rental while in San Gimignano it would be good way to better see that area.

If there is not a good option, we will probably just stick to public transportation as you suggest.

I wouldn't be too quick to give up the idea of renting a car in Tuscany. If you want to get out and travel around the countryside, the car makes it a lot easier. We've driven a lot in Tuscany and it is not difficult or stressful at all. The roads are excellent. You don't have tolls if you stay off the Autostrada and you want to stay off the Autostrada anyway because the smaller roads have more interesting views and you will want to visit the little villages on the smaller roads.

The S222 between Florence and Siena is the Chianti Wine Route and is a gorgeous and stress-free drive.

As far as renting in San Gimignano, check the rental agencies and see if they offer anything there. We've used http://www.autoeurope.com/

Most of the large companies have offices in Italy, so check Avis, Enterprise, National and any other rental companies you normally use. I'm sure some of them will have offices in or near San G. If not, take a train to someplace nearby and rent your car there.

Have you tried the Poggibonsi town web site? They often list transportation options on their web sites. Worth a try.

Good luck.

For another opinion - San G is really not that large a place, and is served exclusively by bus and NO train.

I do have to take exception to the advice against getting a car expressed by some and instead agree with Beausoleil - the road into San G from Siena where there are surely car rental agencies is a wide well-paved and easily driven road over rolling hills and very pretty terrain. The 222 is similarly easily driven as are most of the roads in Italy. And frankly, the autostrada are safe wide dual carriageways. Drivers are fast but skilled. If you stay out of the fast lane ( unless you want to drive 120 km/hour) you will do just fine. The only place where a rental car may not be a good idea is the larger cities - many pedestrian zones, many one way streets which all seem to go in the wrong direction - otherwise if you are willing to pay for a car, expensive fuel (at least for those of us from the US), and insurance, the car should be your first choice for getting around Tuscany and Umbria.

Personally, I would consider renting the car in Rome as you are about to leave. While driving around in Rome is hazardous to many people's blood pressure (although I enjoyed it once I learned the local rules), leaving town is normally a function of taking the nearest major road out of town to the ringroad, then taking the ringroad around to the exit to the autostrada (or however you are going to go).

For example, the last time we were there, we had an apartment in the Via Aurelia in the shadow of the Vatican. To get out of town to the north, we took the Via Aurelia west until we hit the ringroad...the nice thing is that it's hard to miss...then took the ringroad around to the north to the cutoff for the A-1 to go up to Chiusi and Assisi (different trips). This may be the long way, but it avoids driving across town...even I have gotten turned around in Rome in parts of town that I didn't spend much time in, and I lived there (and drove) more than a year.

This method works for car rental agencies in town...of course, if you want, you can take the Leonardo Express train from Termini out to Fiumicino and pick up the car there. When you go from Fiumicino to the north (towards Umbria and Tuscany), you never go into Rome...it's a highway from the airport to the ringroad, then the ringroad up the west side, then the A-1 cutoff on the north side. The only problem will be the time of day as the ringroad does back up in rush hour in some sections.

This also lets you visit places on the way up to San Gimignano - lots to see!

Bill

hahaha, Jen! Actually, lots of foreigners drive in Rome - the foreign residents, of course (like I was)...

I don't know where the OP is from, but if someone can drive in Boston or Manhattan or London, then driving in Rome isn't a fatal (oops!) problem. Besides, I gave him an option to never drive in Rome at all...

Really, once I learned that the rules of the road were not the rules on the signs, it all made a lot more sense ;-)

Bill

Thank you all for the feedback. I am looking into a couple of options for both renting a car near San G. and renting a car near Rome (any ideas as to how long that drive would be to San G. from Rome).

Get used to using www.viamichelin.com - and excellent website for planning car trips...it gives you suggested routes, shortest routes, fastest routes, toll and petrol estimates...and in towns, you can even chart paths on foot.

Bill

" hands off the wheel!!!!!!! "

Well, that could certainly CAUSE a panic attack ;-)

Bill

Driving in Italy is no harder or more dangerous than driving in Washington DC's insane Beltway or New York's BQE or Toronto's QEW ( 5 lanes of madness ). At least the drivers in Italy know how to drive. BTW, we have always as Bill suggested to you, rented the car from FCO and not in Rome.

And at long last I know who that woman was driving with no hands. :)

Well, Jen, maybe in some future universe, I can drive you around Italy. My wife says it was very easy riding with me - she just closed her eyes (yes, she actually made this recommendation to my sister when we were all in Rome together in 2000)...

Bill

I think the panic attack sufferer is from Australia where they drive on the "wrong" side of the road (at least it's wrong in Italy). The poster didn't give a country so we don't know what side of the road is normal for him/her.

I stand by my conviction that a car is the easiest quickest way to see the lovely out-of-the-way places in Tuscany.

I agree with Bill, driving in Italy is not that bad. As someone used to driving on the LEFT side of the road, I've had no problems driving in Italy. Many years ago we stayed in San Donato, which is just up the road from Poggibonsi. There are plenty of places to see in the area, and you do need a car to see the country. I can't advise you where to rent from though - we have usually picked up a car from Pisa airport.

And no, I wouldn't dream of driving in central Rome - although I have driven through Florence in the rush hour, and I have driven on the Autostradas.

I have found a local rental place in San Gimignano that rents scooters, motorcycles, and cars. The only problem is that I can only drive an automatic car (its embarrassing I know)and this person only has one automatic rental and its van...so its rather expensive.

Re the van with automatic - several years ago friends rented one of those and found it vastly underpowered. A Toyota.

I can't imagine there would be car rental near SG. Poggibonsi, possibly, Sienna, a better bet, Rome certainly. I spent 5 weeks driving around Italy last year and it is ok, with normal reasonable caution and if you adopt their attitude of "there's a gap, I'm going for it". Unless you have good nerves and prepared to throw you weight around, central Rome is not a good idea but all else should be ok. I've hired car from a company called Carjet, a UK brokerage, who operate from most airports and have been ok, and economical in the past. Good luck

Now that we are thinking of renting a car, we are also considering staying outside of the city as well as possibly closer to another small city. Ultimately, we want to spend a day or two exploring local wineries and I am thinking that another location might be more ideally suited for that. If we rent a car, we need not stay in a city per se. Now I just have to investigate some of the areas of Tuscany for the location that would make the most since: 1) close to a small city and 2) ideally positioned to explore wineries.

We will be arriving from Rome and going to Florence when we leave. Any suggestions (stick to the San Gimignano area or venture out towards another location).

Thanks again for all of your feedback, it has been greatly appreciated.

We decided to stick with our plan to stay in the city of San Gimignano. We are either going to rent a car in Chisui or Siena and drive in from there. There is one more regional car rental place I found and I am waiting to see where they are located and if they have cars with automatic transmissions available. Either way we will rent a car to tour the countryside, it is just a matter of which location.

Thank you again for your suggestions and encouragement to hire a car...I think we will not be disappointed.