Getting to Florence

How to get to Florence, Italy

First of all, you're going to need some plane tickets. That's easy; just follow my step-by-step guide to

finding the cheapest airfare every time.

Arriving in Florence, in brief: Trains to Florence pull into Stazione Santa Maria Novella. Bus 62 shuttles passengers every 20 minutes between the station and Amerigo Vespucci Airport, 3 miles northwest of town. Mainly national and a few continental flights land at Florence's airport. Most flights from Europe land at Pisa's Galileo Galilei Airport, 60 miles and an hour's shuttle train ride from Florence. Parking is cheapest in the city-run parterre lot.

Arriving by Plane

Several European airlines are now servicing Florence's expanded Amerigo Vespucci Airport (tel. +39-055-306-1300; www.aeroporto.firenze.it), also called Peretola, just 5km (3 miles) northwest of town. There are no direct flights to/from the United States, but you can make easy connections through London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and so on.

ATAF's regularly scheduled Vola in Bus connects the airport with Piazza della Stazione downtown (30 min.; buy your ticket onboard). Metered taxis line up outside the airport's arrival terminal and charge about €15–€16 to most hotels in the city center (tel. 800-424-500 in Italy, www.ataf.net).

The closest major international airport to Florence is Pisa's Galileo Galilei Airport (tel. +39-050-849-111; www.pisa-airport.it), 97km (60 miles) west of Florence. About a dozen trains (www.trenitalia.it) per day leave the airport for Florence (80 min.). You can also, obviously, grab a bus (€0.85, www.cpt.pisa.it) or taxi (€5–€7) for the ten-minute ride into downtown Pisa.

Arriving by Train

Most Florence-bound trains roll into the Stazione Santa Maria Novella, which you'll often see abbreviated as S.M.N. (tel. 055-288-765 or toll-free in Italy 848-888-088; www.trenitalia.it). The station is on the northwestern edge of the city's compact historic center, a 10-minute walk from the Duomo and a 20-minute walk from Piazza della Signoria and the Uffizi. The best budget hotels are immediately east of there around Via Faenza and Via Fiume.

With your back to the tracks, you'll find a tiny tourist info office with a hotel-booking service office, open daily from 8:30am to 9pm, toward the station's left exit next to a 24-hour pharmacy. The train information office is near the opposite exit to your right. Walk straight through the central glass doors into the outer hall for tickets at the biglietteria. At the head of Track 16 is a 24-hour luggage depot where you can drop your bags while you search for a hotel.

Some trains stop at the outlying Stazione Campo di Marte or Stazione Rifredi, which are worth avoiding. Although there's 24-hour bus service between these satellite stations and S.M.N., departures aren't always frequent and taxi service is erratic and expensive.

Arriving by Car & Parking

Driving to Florence is easy; the problems begin once you arrive. Almost all cars are banned from the historic center—only residents or merchants with special permits are allowed in.

You'll likely be stopped at some point by the traffic police, who'll assume from your rental plates that you're a visitor heading to your hotel. Have the name and address of the hotel ready and they'll wave you through. You can drop off baggage there (the hotel will give you a sign for your car advising traffic police you're unloading), but then you must relocate to a parking lot. Ask your hotel which is most convenient: Special rates are available through most of the hotels and their nearest lot.

The cheapest public lot is the vast underground Parterre lot at Piazza della Libertà; you must show a hotel receipt to get that tourist rate when you retrieve your car. They also have ranks of cheap bikes for rent. Don't park your car overnight on the street; if you're towed and ticketed, it will set you back substantially—and the headaches to retrieve your car are beyond description. For more information on parking in Florence, visit www.firenzeparcheggi.it.