Tuscany Getting there & around

Getting around

Public transport

ATAF (Azienda Trasporti Area Fiorentina; 800 42 45 00; www.ataf.net in Italian) buses and electric bussini (minibuses) serve the city and its periphery. Most – including bus 7 to Fiesole and bus 13 to Piazza Michelangelo – start/terminate at the ATAF bus stops opposite the southeastern exit of Stazione di Santa Maria Novella.

Tickets cost €1.20 (€2 on board) and are sold at the ATAF ticket & information office (Piazza Adua; 7am-8pm daily), opposite the station. A carnet of 10/21 tickets costs €10/20, a biglietto multiplo (four-journey ticket) is €4.50 and a one-/three-day pass is €5/12. Passengers caught travelling without a time-stamped ticket (punch it on board) are fined €40.

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Car & motorcycle

Casual traffic is banned from the heart of town. Cyclopean cameras snap your numberplate as you enter and fines for transgressors are savage. Parking anywhere can induce apoplexy; the only practical advice is to dump your vehicle as soon as you can.

The cheapest public car parks are in the Oltrarno beneath Piazzale di Porta Romana and Piazza della Calza; both cost €1.50 per hour or €15 for a 24-hour period. Otherwise, most hotels can arrange parking in a private garage for guests for €15 to €35 per 24 hours.

Should your car be towed away, call the Ufficio Depositeria Comunale (Car Pound Office; 055 328 36 60; Piazza Artom 13-14; 8am-12.45pm Mon-Wed & Fri, 8am-6pm Thu).

Car-rental agencies include:

Avis (199 10 01 33; Borgo Ognissanti 128r)

Europcar (055 29 04 38; Borgo Ognissanti 53-57r)

Hertz (199 11 22 11; Via Maso Finiguerra 33r)

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Local transport

Taxi

For a taxi call 055 42 42 or 055 43 90.

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Bicycle

Beat the traffic. Bike-tour operators Florence by Bike and Tour Bike Florence both rent wheels, as does the open-air rental outlet Biciclette a Noleggio (Piazza della Stazione; 7.30am-7pm Mon-Sat, 9am-7pm Sun Apr-Sep, shorter hr Oct-Mar) , in front of Stazione Santa Maria Novella.

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