Rent a Car in Florence

Florence's historic centre — the Duomo, the Uffizi, the Ponte Vecchio, the Oltrarno — is small, dense and entirely walkable, and much of it is closed to unauthorised traffic anyway. A car adds nothing here and, given the narrow medieval streets and camera-enforced restricted zones, actively gets in the way. The reason to hire a car in Florence is Tuscany itself: Chianti's vineyard roads start less than 30 minutes south, Siena's medieval core is about an hour away, and San Gimignano's towers are roughly an hour and 15 minutes west, none of which are well served by direct public transport if you want to see more than one town in a day.

Further out, the Val d'Orcia — Pienza, Montepulciano, Montalcino — is about 1.5 to 2 hours south and rewards a full day or an overnight stay among its rolling hills and wine estates. Pisa's Leaning Tower is a quick hour west, and Lucca, with its intact Renaissance walls, sits just beyond it. For a longer trip, Cinque Terre is reachable in around 2 hours northwest, though parking there is scarce and best handled by leaving the car in La Spezia and taking the local train.