I am researching a rental car in Italy for a week and one day in October. I have used the advice of

I am researching a rental car in Italy for a week and one day in October. I have used the advice of former Fodorites and have referred to AutoEurope.it and Hertz.it both of which have considerably lower rates than their US counterparts. I tried to book a car on AutoEurope.it and was declined. I called the US AutoEurope and they would not book the Italian rate for me.
Then I called Hertz and explained the rates on the Hertz.it site were lower and asked to book that rate. The Hertz agent told me the Hertz.it rates can only be booked if I have an Italian address. She indicated I would be turned away from the counter if I booked the rate on line.
I also checked out economycarrentals.com whose prices seem to be lower than AutoEurope.com . Does economycarrentals.com use the major car rental companies and should I book through them or see if AutoEurope can price match?
Michael, I don't know if you consider Budget a major rental company but that is the company given our Florence based rental contract through economycarrentals. However, with the contract out of Venice, it is with a company that is not familiar to me.
moo- we have used autoeurope, kemwel and ecomonycarrentals while in Italy and have had no problems with any of our rentals. That said, we do rent only manual drives and as small as comfortable Deborah
Odd you couldn't rent on the Auto Europe Italy site. I booked a car on that (US Resident). I did try to get auto Europe US to match and they said they couldn't. They also said I wasn't supposed to book on the Italy site. I gave my residency as US, correct US address and a US VISA card. Haven't used the rental yet, so hoping there isn't a problem upon rental. I asked a question on this board about the rentals on foreign sites and got positive feedback about doing it. you can also try the auto Europe eu site.
We booked online with Hertz for a pickup outside Rome, return at FCO, no problem. I'd say just try again, it may depend who you talk to. We used to book with Auto Europe, lately have found better prices at Hertz. But we always book online.
Give Kemwel a try. I got quotes from AutoEurope and Kemwel for the exact same car including insurance with zero deductible and Kemwel was $200+ lower than AutoEurope. They are sister companies but they have different contracts as it was explained to me. I did book with Kemwel for November. Kemwel 1-800 820 0668. The car is actually from Hertz. I used them in the past and never had a problem. They will always quote the price and book it for you but will take 24 hours to confirm the automatic. That must be an Italian thing!