Florence
How to get around Florence
Understanding Florence's transport network
Florence is unusual among major Italian cities in that the honest advice is to use almost none of its transport. The city's own campaign puts the case in one figure: the entire UNESCO World Heritage site “fits into just over 5 square kilometers”. Nearly every journey a visitor makes — cathedral to Uffizi to Ponte Vecchio to the Oltrarno — is a walk of fifteen minutes or less, and walking is not the virtuous option here but simply the fastest one.
Where transport earns its place is at the edges: arriving, leaving, and reaching the hills. Buses and trams are operated by Autolinee Toscane, a ticket costs €2 and covers 90 minutes, and a contactless card is enough to board without buying anything in advance. The one rule that catches people is validation — the city's own guidance is blunt that you must stamp the ticket as you board “and avoid a hefty fine”.
The city counts over 120 km of bike lanes, which makes cycling a real option for the flat ground along the river, though the historic centre's narrow streets and crowds make it a poor choice at midday.
The one thing to get right
Do not drive into the centre. It is a restricted-traffic zone, enforced by camera, and the penalty arrives by post weeks after you have gone home. The Comune runs a dedicated ZTL information line on +39 055 40401, and a separate line for recovering towed vehicles on +39 055 422 4142 — the existence of both tells you how often this goes wrong.
Verified against EnjoyRespectFirenze — Comune di Firenze, October 2026.
Connections from Florence
How easily, and at what cost, can you combine the region’s main destinations?
| Route | Best option | One-way time | Travel Smart take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florence and Greve in Chianti | Bus or carmoderate cost | ~35 min by road | Excellent day-trip connection. Florence works well as a base for Greve in Chianti. |
| Florence and Pisa | Traininexpensive | ~50 min–1 hr 20 min typical, not a timetable | Comfortable as a day trip. Florence is a workable base for Pisa. |
| Florence and San Gimignano | Train and local bus, or carinexpensive | ~1 hr by road | Comfortable as a day trip. Florence is a workable base for San Gimignano. |
| Florence and Siena | Businexpensive | ~1 hr 15 min scheduled service | Possible in a day, but it takes most of one. |
Cost compares the options for each route rather than quoting a fare: inexpensive means the price is not a factor in planning, moderate cost means a real line in the budget, and the expensive option is one worth weighing against the alternative. Fares change from year to year; the ranking between them does not.
Crossing Florence on foot
The historic centre is about two kilometres across and the World Heritage area “fits into just over 5 square kilometers”, so the walk between any two of the major sights is short enough that transport rarely saves time. The spine runs from Santa Maria Novella and the station, through the cathedral and the Signoria, to Ponte Vecchio and across into the Oltrarno; most visitors walk that line several times without noticing they have.
Two things make the walking harder than the distances suggest. The pavements in the medieval streets are genuinely narrow, often too narrow for two people abreast, which is why the city asks visitors not to block them. And the crowd on the cathedral–Signoria–Ponte Vecchio axis concentrates from mid-morning; the same walk at eight in the morning and at noon is a different experience entirely.
Buses, trams and bikes
Autolinee Toscane runs the buses and the tram network. A €2 ticket covers 90 minutes, contactless payment works on board, and tickets are also sold through the operator's app — but validate on boarding. Over 120 km of bike lanes make the flat ground along the Arno genuinely cyclable, and the city asks that bikes be parked only in designated spots.
Reaching the hills
The viewpoints that explain Florence's geography — Piazzale Michelangelo, San Miniato, and Fiesole on the ridge beyond — are the journeys actually worth taking a bus for, since they involve real climbs out of the basin rather than a stroll across it.