I rented the car to go to Bologna because there were no trains coming back late at night and the cos

I get a lot of questions about renting a car and traveling in Italy, and I usually advise not to do it. Having rented a car for the first time, I stick to that piece of advice. Of course, there are some advantages, but to me, the cost and disadvantages outweigh them pretty dramatically. I rented the car on line and got a great price of 28 euros. The car was supposed to be a Fiat Panda or equivalent, but they gave me a Peugot 308C which was a sporty little convertible! The gas mileage was pretty good, but gas is incredibly expensive. I used a quarter of a tank and it cost 30 euro to fill it up.
I rented the car to go to Bologna because there were no trains coming back late at night and the cost of a hotel, plus the train far exceeded the cost of the rental car. This was the primary advantage. However the disadvantages were:
We rented a very nice Volvo station wagon on our recent trip, using it to travel from Rome to Siena to Venice to Florence to Assisi and back to Rome. Driving on the autostradas was very nice. Driving with a GPS is a must! (Although when first trying to get out of Rome I turned left according to the directions and ended up on a jogging w hotel chicago path. When in Assisi it again told me to turn left, but tjhis time down a staircase.)