Rental car trip from Aviano

Author Message   Brian T. Edwards Intermediate Member Username: Briane Post Number: 135 Registered: 06-2007 Posted From: 66.166.88.18 Posted on Monday, March 22, 2010 - 02:52 pm:    I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with the driving laws and road signs in Italy. Here is a link. You can access the driver's manual from there. http://www.usag.vicenza.army.mil/sites/local/DT.asp I would also recommend that you get the insurance from the rental company as it will save you time and hassles if there is an incident with the rental car in Italy.   Barbara Patterson Member Username: Bap Post Number: 38 Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.255.75.114 Posted on Monday, March 22, 2010 - 10:59 am:    Thanks, BJ, for this info on driving in N. Italy. My husband and I will be there mid-April. What hotels did you stay in near Florence and Milan? Since this is "ground transportation" site, you might want to email me directly or post in "lodging". Barbara   BJ Drew Junior Member Username: Drewclan Post Number: 6 Registered: 05-2007 Posted From: 99.135.39.54 Posted on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 08:07 pm:    Road Trip Italia Here are some thoughts and experiences from our recent space-a hop to Northern Italy and Switzerland. As always when talking about travel, your mileage my vary ;) Rental Car We were lucky to catch the BWI-Ramstein-Aviano Patriot Express in the first week of March 2010. Arriving at Aviano AFB in the late afternoon we rode the base shuttle bus over to the Exchange area and stopped by the counter of EuropCar. We hadn't made a reservation and didn't have any problem getting a rental but in hindsight this probably wasn't the best planning. We do recommend that you call ahead for reservations (DSN 632-8719, Commercial 39-0434-652-607, Mon-Fri 0900-1800/ Sat 0900-1400/ Sun Closed). They did ask for our International Driver's License which we got at AAA before we left. Little Cars, Big Appetites Our car was a Fiat Qubo, a bit larger than some of the tiny Italian cars with room for three and bags. Most of the rentals are diesel and for a good reason, economy diesel (yes, they have different grades) was running about $5 per gallon. Unlike here, diesel was cheaper than gas, and of course the mileage is better. Paying for gasoline would have been outrageous. Another thing to remember about Italian rentals: they almost always have standard transmissions. The seven day rental cost $475. We went ahead and paid for the standard insurance. After reading the many posts on the topic here we asked our insurance company (USAA) what they thought and they did recommend it. Drive like an Italian Or don't! Maybe because we were in Northern Italy, not in Naples where drivers are infamous, but we found driving quite familiar. People were polite and predictable on the roads. We traveled thousands of kilometers on "Autostrada," the Italian freeways/interstates, and found them often in better condition than our roads here on the US East Coast. They were maybe a bit narrower than US roads but were very well maintained, well marked with easily understood signage, and had frequent emergency pull outs available. Italians don't linger in the left passing lane unless they're roaring along at 100+ mph. Trucks, and there are many, lumber sedately in the right hand lane. Everyone else tools along at about 80mph in the center lane, popping in and out of the fast- lane or slow-lane as conditions require. We cruised around at 70mph without problem, especially after watching our fuel gauge quickly sink to empty when we boosted the speed up above 80mph. What a difference that speed makes! Like many space-a travelers, we had more time than money, so slowing down was a no brainer. Surface Streets, Superstrada Off the Autostrada and on to local roads, the famed Italian passion for speed and even recklessness was evident. I like to think of myself as an adventurous driver but these folks toss their cars around like go carts on a racetrack. Let ‘em roll on by, they'll pass when they can. Smaller roads were also well maintained and the signs were excellent. This is where having a car in Italy really pays off, go out and explore! Tolls and Snow Storms We went through a big snow storm north of Venice and the roads were well plowed and salted. There are frequent rest stops with great food and fuel. Almost all the Autostrada were toll roads, but toll booths weren't annoyingly frequent . Instead, you grab a ticket from a booth at the beginning of your trip and then pay at the end, even if you switch between different roads. Well marked color coded lanes steer you towards Telepass (similar to the East Coast EZ Pass), "Carte" (credit card), or Cash lanes. We went through the Carte lanes and never had a problem, or even a wait. Just pop in your ticket, follow with your credit card, and off you go. The cost seemed comparable to US rates, for instance we paid about $22 between Aviano and Florence, a six hour drive. Park like a New Yorker In the bigger cities we visited, parking was a nightmare. If you're just visiting cities, leave the car on base at Aviano where it belongs and travel by train. Still, finding a parking garage wasn't hard and the rates also seemed comparable to the US. We paid about $30 per day in Florence for instance. Our hotel had an arrangement with a nearby garage which helped a lot. This is common, be sure to ask. Downtown Florence and Milan were technically closed to traffic during the daytime but we whizzed through like clueless tourists without a problem. Cars have a little plastic parking clock attached to the windshield, but we never saw these in use. People just parked wherever they could wedge their little vehicle and seemed to leave it endlessly. We weren't that happy go lucky about it with a rental and tried to stick with garages while in the cities. Theft/Vandalism We didn't have any trouble with this, but again, we weren't in Naples. We followed the standard advice of taking everything but the spare tire out of the car every time we parked it. Then we left the glovebox gaping open and removed the little cover that hides the back hatchway area so that everyone could see there was nothing to take. Satellite Navigation This was our first trip to Italy, so we didn't know our way around. It's shaped like a boot, right? Aviano is up at the top, Venice over on the right, Florence in the middle somewhere? Even so, we did fine and had a lot of fun learning to drive and navigate there. You will too. As many folks on these boards recommend, we used gps and found it to be very helpful and reassuring. But not perfect. We were glad to have brought along printed directions from google maps for the places we knew we would be going. Even these weren't 100% accurate, but it was very helpful to orient ourselves to which roads and directions we would be using. We also brought along a map of Italian roads we got from our local bookstore. That simple map saved our navigator many a migraine. Although we were never "lost," we did have some adventures with the gps. The best of these was when little TomTom directed us up the wrong isolated Alpine valley on the way to Locarno, Switzerland. A lonely pair of border guards in a snow storm laughed when we asked if we were going the right way. Turning back, a kind hardware store owner directed us, with hand gestures and no English at all, over the Centovalli Rd, which was about 6 feet wide and had 347 hairpin turns with death trap drop offs every 19 feet. Add in Swiss racer boys in hopped up BMWs and this was a driving highlight for us. Returning the Rental Back at Aviano the night before our flight home we realized another advantage of having a rental car. After hours that base is not very traveler friendly. The shuttle bus stops running and many of our fellow travelers were walking. One couple walked from the town of Aviano and all over the base without being offered a ride. The EuropCar office is not anywhere near the AMC Terminal, so if you want to arrive "travel ready" for your flight, allow time to walk from the Exchange back to the terminal. There is an after hours key drop off but it is at the laundromat by the exchange, not at the AMC Terminal. What we did was drop off the car and the key and then beg a ride to the terminal from an Airman at the Exchange. He very kindly brought us over and regaled us with stories about the great skiing he was getting in while stationed there. Thanks, Staff Sargent! We drove the wheels off that little Fiat and really enjoyed ourselves. Hope you do the same.