Maps of Florence

The Department of Tourism in Florence has a new bus and road map out to help people get in and out of Florence and the surrounding areas. Of course you have to get one at the tourist office, which sort of makes it a Catch-22 situation. Anyway - it has a ton of good info on it, like this little map below showing the locations of the bus stations near the train station:

And here are some important links for rail and bus transportation into and out of Florence and the surrounding area:

Trenitalia: http://www.trenitalia.com

Ataf: http://www.ataf.net

Sita: http://www.sitabus.it (Arezzo, San Gimignano, Siena, Volterra, The Mall)

Cap: http://www.capautolinee.it (Prato, I Gigli)

Lazzi: http://www.lazzi.it (Arezzo, Lucca, Montecatini Terme, Prato, Viareggio)

Piubus: http://www.piubus.it

Autolinee Toscane: http://www.autolineetoscane.it

Here is a map from Google showing roughly the same area:

An annotated map with photos and locations of the churches, cathedrals, basilicas and monasteries of Florence, Italy.

The electric mini-buses that run in the city center had a radical change this year (2010) when more of the center was closed to traffic. The below map shows the updated routes: C1, C2, C3 & D (don't ask for the logic on that - "C" must mean center now... but why the bus on the other side is "D" and not "O", or why they didn't keep A, B, etc... who knows!).

You can also see the Tramvia Line 1 on this map.

The buses run Monday to Saturday, from 7 AM until 9 PM, every ten minutes, and 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM on holidays. I guess they don't run on Sundays - which I had not noticed before.

Inside the old city walls of Florence (well, what used to be the walls and is now the viale or large avenue circling the city), driving is limited to registered vehicles (city residents) except for a small area around the train station (Santa Maria Novella). Florentines call this the ZTL, or "Zona Traffico Limitato". It is important to know this to avoid receiving HUGE traffic tickets by driving your car into the center of Florence. On the map below (click it for a larger version), you can see the ZTL entry points (red and blue "T"s) and the various zones by letter (which correspond to where residents can park). You can drive into the center with a rental car if you are staying at a hotel, but the hotel must let the traffic police know your license plates, etc. And if you do drive in, make sure to use one of the blue "T" spots, not the red - even with a residents permit to enter, you can't enter at the red "T" signs (I now know - it was an expensive lesson).

So remember - if you are just coming to Florence as stop on a day trip, or you are staying at a self catering apartment (i.e. not a hotel), you can not legally drive into (most of) the center, although personally we have heard stories of people doing so and not getting tickets, if you do the fines are steep and they are getting better and better at finding you and making sure you pay. In any case, this is something to be aware of and be careful of! Study the map closely and you will see there are a few ins and outs (Sundays are open, as are nights from 7:30 PM to 7:30 AM, but not in the summer, etc.). Lastly, the light blue shaded streets are "zona pedonale" or pedestrian zones, and you shouldn't be driving on them at all!