Quote:
Originally Posted by ppointer
I rented an A6 Avant and two A4 Avants in Italy through Hertz, roughly ten days per visit. Was very seamless, in that the paperwork is familiar and I was awarded Hertz points after the rental. Although most cars in Italy are MT, the Audi's I was given were all automatic (I think the A6 might have had a dual-clutch). The A4's were 2-liter turbo diesels, while the A6 was a 3-liter, if I remember correctly.
I got the complete, 100% insurance coverage, as my home auto coverage doesn't work outside of the USA.
I used Waze over there. I switched settings to metric, but otherwise used it as in the US. One advantage with Waze is that it found 100% of the speed cameras while we were there.
I kept up with traffic that for the most part did 5kph over the limit. Most autostradas had 130k limits; there were no unlimited speeds as in Germany.
Their lane discipline is incredible, which I found refreshing compared to the left-lane bandits over here. In fact, it seemed like the driving skill over there is miles ahead of what I witness here everyday. One day I was following a cheezy, decades-old Fiat down a twisty two-lane, and I simply could not keep up. Granted, he knew the road and it was my first time seeing it, but he looked completely relaxed and gradually pulled away. There were no straights that permitted me to catch up.
I have rented outside the US roughly ten times. In every case I needed an international driver's license. You can buy them at AAA, and they're good for one year. Not expensive.
A lot of the Italian autostradas require a toll. I searched in vain to purchase a transponder like we have here, but the conclusion I came to is you have to be a resident to get one. Instead, just swipe a credit card at the booth, and the robot says "arrivederci!!"
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great input, I won't be in Italy so most of this probably doesn't apply, as for international driving license, I guess this might be a problem as I only have US one and I don't think I have time to apply for another one, I have one full day left before my trip