I thought I made a major mistake when I rented an electric vehicle in Italy. There was a steep learning curve, but I'd do it again.

• My friends and I accidentally rented an electric car on a recent trip to Italy.
• I initially thought it was a major mistake when we had to charge our car for four hours.

The car was dead silent, and I felt panic set in among my group of friends.

We had just finished charging our electric car for four hours in Lake Como, Italy, and we hadn't recharged its battery completely.

Based on rough math, it'd take us 12 hours to get from Lake Como to Florence, Italy.

We had budgeted five hours for the drive.

One friend started calling our car-rental company, hoping we could trade our automatic EV for a gas car.

I hopped on Google and tried to figure out how people manage life with electric cars when they take so long to charge.

That's when we realized our mistake — we had used a charger with a low voltage. A high-voltage charger, on the other hand, would take just 30 minutes to get our car's battery to 80%.

While we were relieved we wouldn't spend our whole vacation waiting for our EV to charge, we weren't sure if the rental car was a huge mistake.

But even after the hassle, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Planning our days around charging

I arrived at Milano Linate Airport and headed to our car-rental booth with a friend.

The person at the counter started running through all the details of our rental. She confirmed our dates and then handed us a plastic credit card we would use to charge the car.

After seeing our confused faces, she clarified that we were getting an electric car. It wasn't our choice. Instead, it was our only option since we needed an automatic vehicle.

We figured it wouldn't be a big deal and grabbed the keys to our Mokka SUV.

After meeting with two other friends, we set off to Lake Como.

We had enough charge to get us to and around Lake Como for three days. But on the fourth day, we desperately needed to recharge.

That's when we made the voltage mistake and realized that we would need to start mapping our route around charging stations.

But it wasn't our only mistake. Multiple times throughout the trip, we forgot to keep an eye on the battery. The result was a stressful hunt for the nearest charger.

We also thought we could trust the estimated mileage. We were wrong and quickly learned that the battery drains faster on highways. This meant our planned stops were constantly changing to meet our car's needs.

Ultimately, an EV forced us to explore new places and saved us money

We pulled into Piacenza, an Italian town I had never heard of. Situated between Lake Como and Florence, it's located in the most northern point of Italy's Emilia region.

We were making the stop because our car battery was nearly dead. And we figured we might as well take advantage of the forced stop and explore the town.

We sipped on Aperol spritzes, ate gelato, and admired the town's churches and architecture.

While exploring, we learned about the town's history. The town had been conquered by France multiple times in the Middle Ages, and some of that French influence can still be seen today, according to She Go Wandering.

If we had been using a gas car, we would have never made the stop in Piacenza. Instead, we would've passed through the small town and spent more time in touristy Florence.

A few days later, we made a stop in Sasso Marconi, where our group explored a local market and met friendly, elderly Italian men in a local cafe.

While not all our stops were in cute Italian towns, some were and they gave us a glimpse into a version of Italy I hadn't seen before. Since most of my time spent in the country has been focused on tourist destinations, the electric car forced us to explore under-the-radar Italian towns.

It also saved us money. Charging our electric vehicle was included in our rental price, so we didn't have to budget for gas during the entire trip.

And, it was nice knowing that my trip had a slightly lower carbon footprint since electric vehicles typically have lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

Between those three advantages, I'd easily rent an EV again.