a very good advise to all Italy-goers ;)

palosverdes

hey there,

i calculated on train vs. rental car and if you are two or more the latter is the cheapest alternative, if you are doing most of the legs. If you wanna take the cheapest but sloooowest trains, then it might be slightly cheaper taking the train, but check out these sites for cars:

http://www.thrifty.it
http://www.rent.it

very good offers... think about it, better have a road trip than slow train trip

Jammin909

Sixti is also a very cheap rental car company.

http://www.sixti.com/cgi-perl/rental/el

Evolutionary

Which site were you using for trains?
Using the Trenitalia (and booking first class for every journey) our total cost for trains for two people comes to £132.46. (None of the trains we are taking are the slow, local, trains - none of our trips take longer than 2 hours, except for Torino - Pistoia, as that's a looong trip eitherway).
The cheapest car available on the rent.it site is £155.57, which doesn't include fuel costs (and the cars on thrifty.it are more expensive)

I suppose it's down to personal taste whether to drive or take the train, but the train is certainly cheaper for two people, and with fuel costs to add to that, I'd hazard a guess that it's cheaper for three also.

palosverdes

For two people, you are right, cheaper to go by train.

These are the costs if anyone wondered (trenitalia.it, rent.it, viamichelin.com):

Car (not the smallest like Ford Ka, but the next class like Fiat Punto 1.2, i have rented it before and it is big enough for four people, also five) including petrol and road taxes for the period of 13-21 September = € 429

Train (per person!) (with the regional trains and not the faster ones like EC): € 132

Choices

1 person: Train
2 persons: Train
3 persons: almost the same cost, depends on how much fun you think it is to go by the sloooow trains, have a road trip, see Parma, see the coast from turin to pistoia...
4 persons: Car
5 persons: Car

So if you are 4, rent a car, and keep in mind how much more nature you can see if you go by car, you are much more flexible etc etc etc etc etc
If you are 3 persons it costs you €10 more (per person) to go by car but I highly recommend it. (lived four yrs in Italy and it is a beautiful country that is easily seen better from a MINI FAST Car)

decides2dream

we are 6, possibly 7 people, renting a van. we were originally planning on the train...but then hooked up with 2 from here who wanted to share in a car or van. i still think it may end up to be a bit more pricey than trainfare, but i too believe the convenience factor and the sightseeing from the road...will be well worth it. and i still will have one train ride, pistoia back to bologna for my flight home.

edit - for americans - do realize it's next to impossible to get an automatic transmission in europe. if it is even available, i am sure it is much more pricey. if i didn't hook up with others, i'd be shit out of luck car-wise...b/c i never learned how to drive a manual stick, and i am sure there are others like me...so do take note.