Travelling by car

In Italy roads are good. Motorways or freeways are excellent (sometimes built on incredible systems of mountain tunnels and viaducts), but they are not always free. There is a distinction here. For autostrade (singular: autostrada) there is a toll to pay; superstrade are usually free.
The main motorway is the A1, although Italians never call autostrade by numbers, but by their two terminals, like Milano-Laghi (Milan-Lakes), Firenze-Mare (Florence-Sea), Genova-Torino. You've got the idea. Sometimes motorways have nicknames. The motorway from Genoa going West to the French border is called "Autostrada dei fiori", after the flower-growing area it goes through. The A1, which runs through all the length of Italy from Milan in the North to the toe of the boot in the extreme South, is universally known as "Autostrada del sole", because it leaves the fog of the Po Plain to find the sun in the deep Southern regions.
You'll find some useful information about driving in Italy on the website of the Italian Highways Association: www.autostrade.it

Renting a car is fine, except if you go to places squashed between mountains and sea, in which case you'd be better off travelling by train or even by ferry or boat service. There are in Italy some areas like that, for instance the Cinque Terre, which seems to be growing in popularity, in the Liguria region.

Here are some of the best and cheapest car hire companies with extensive coverage of Italy and online car rental reservations.

easyCar is a low cost, online car hire specialist. It provides car rental in Italy practically covering the whole country.

Europcar is one of the leading car hire companies in the world, hiring more than 220,000 vehicles.
Europcar has a wide range of vehicles available for hire in over 118 countries around the world, including Italy, the UK and the USA, offering highly competitive prices on car & van rentals to both business and leisure travelers.
You can choose your country of residence from the 118 on the scroll list, for both pick-up and return of the car wherever you like.
Europcar has an efficient online reservations service, and excellent rates on a superb choice of vehicles from a rental station close to you. It also has special offers and discounts, constantly updated to ensure that it offers the most competitive rates at all times, including some great deals on longer term hire cars as an alternative option to leasing.

Here's the link:

has an enormous coverage of locations in Italy, covering airports, rail stations and city and town centres. Big cities and small towns alike. Cheap car hire, fully inclusive prices with no hidden extras, easy to book online. Its best prices are always online.

Expedia is a comprehensive travel site for all sorts of needs, from flights to hotels, from car rentals to holiday packages, from holiday deals to guides and insurance.
Expedia