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I have hired cars 3 times in Italy. If you price car hire using any of the search engines you will get local outfits like firefly come up significant cheaper than the known players. Google those cheap companies and you will see they are a shower who add charges and force customers to take insurance they don't need and bill subsequent renters for the same damage that the car has had for who knows how long. I'd stick with a known company. Even last time I booked through Holiday Autos. They allow you to cancel at short notice with no charges and if they do a sale promotion after you book, you can claim the cheaper price with no penalty. Print your papers and take them with you. Last time when I went to hand my car back, they printed out papers and asked me to sign them. I immediately noticed the cost was more than double what I had booked at and I pointed it out. Staff messed about for a while and spoke among themselves but I had my printout and I kept pointing to the cost and the booking reference number. Eventually they reprinted their invoice with the lower figure and muttered that the booking site must have made a mistake. I said if it had, they had 4 months to reject the booking and they didn't so it was their problem. I definitely would avoid any of the cheap companies unless you're willing to risk it. I'd also recommend a separate policy to cover your insurance excess. An annual policy for Europe is around £40-50. A walk away insurance from a rental company will be more than that for a week. Italy is the dearest country I have ever hired a car but when you see how they drive you will understand why. They all drive like they stole them and can't park without contact.
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