i was discussing italy and france as a place to rent a car. neither are in usa. public transport in tuscany and in sicily is lousy. it is not the tgv from paris to lyon. if i want to go to a couple of vineyards in chianti or montelchino, it is cab. cabs are not 5 euro. i do not plan to carry a week of luggage from catania(in italy) to palermo(in italy) by bike. i do not plan to bike anywhere. i am 77 years old. i looked at bus transport in sicily. it is not easy. i looked at public transport in burgundy(in france, not usa). it is lousy. when i would stay in forli or modena go to bologna and the trade show, thebus transport was a couple hours. bus transport within bologna from trade show to hotel was well over an hour. some people do not have 5 hours to get from here to there, or do not have the time and where with all to find the bus routes and transfers to go from one nitch of a country to another.

yes, you know how to get from amsterdam to brussels. how about from lille to loguyon and then to metz to nancy to bass rupts to liverdun??? we did that. we drove. by the way, those places are in france. my wife and i have traveled for about 400-500 days in europe. most by car, most from one small burg to another

my last rental car and fuel cost about 500€ for a week..