Florence Survival Guide

Tuscan cities are compact enough to get around reasonably comfortably on foot, and the city buses are relatively cheap, regular and wide-ranging. A one-way ticket take you 15 km (10miles) out of town, making the bus ideal for trips from the city centre to outlying areas of Florence, Pisa or Siena. The buses get very hot in the summer and are popular with pickpockets (especially Florence 's No.7 bus), so take care when they're crowed.

Moreover, there are limited-traffic zones in the centre of most towns, which makes life slightly easier for pedestrians. Signs for sights and landmarks are usually quite clear, especially those in Siena. In Florence it is easy to pick out the Duomo and the river and orientate yourself in relation to them. A gentle stroll around the main sights of Florence can take just a couple of hours. The Duomo, Santa Maria Novella, Ponte Vecchio and the Accademia are all within ten minutes' walk of each other.

Use the sottopassaggio (under-pass) wherever possible. The busiest roads also have signals to help you cross: the green avanti sign gives you right of way, in theory, but never expect drivers to recognise this as a matter of course. Seize your opportunity and walk out slowly and confidently, glaring at the traffic and maintaining a determined pace: the traffic should stop, or at least swerve. Take extra care at night: traffic lights are switched to flashing amber and crossings become free-for-all.

Florence's city bus company is called ATAF. All the buses are bright orange. Most lines run until at least 9:30pm, with the most popular running until midnight or 1am in Florence. In Pisa and Florence, buses run near all the main sights. Among the most useful Florentine routes for visitors are the No.12 and No. 13, which make hour-long clockwise/ anticlockwise circuits of the city, the No.7 to Fiesole, and the new "eco-routes" A, B, C and D which are electric or eco-diesel fuelled minibuses.

Florence does not have a main terminus, but most buses can be picked up alongside Santa Maria Novella station. There are bus information kiosks at all points, but they are not always open. Tourist information offices can usually help.
Enter the bus at the front or back and get off through the middle doors. The four low seats at the front of the bus are meant for the elderly, the disabled and people with children. Fare dodging is common, but so are inspectors. The fine is at least 40 times the cost of a ticket. To validate a ticket, feed it through a ticket machine on the bus.

Tickets for city buses must be bought before you get on, from newsstands, bars displaying the bus company sign (ATAF, APT, TRA-IN) or tobacconists, or at the bus terminal. If you are likely to make a few trips, buy several tickets at once; they become valid when you timestamp them in the machine at the front or rear of the bus. There are also ticket vending machines in the streets, but they are often out of order. Ticket prices and validity vary from town to town. You can usually buy a ticket valid for one, two or sometimes four hours' unlimited travel.

The time limit starts when you stamp your ticket on the first bus. You can also buy daily passes, or a ticket for quattro corsi, valid for four trips. You must stamp the ticket for each of the four trips. A quattro corsi is slightly cheaper than the same number of single tickets. You just stamp it as and when needed until you have made the permitted number of trips.

If you are staying for a long time in one town, a pass for unlimited travel is a good idea. Anyone can buy a regular monthly pass (abbonamento mensile ordinario), but for student rates, you will need a photocard. In Florence, these are available for a small fee from the ATAF Ufficio Abbonamenti. Monthly passes can be bought wherever bus tickets are on sale. In Florence, the best bus ticket is the plurigiornale, available from the ATAF office, bars, tobacconists and newsstands. These are valid for 2, 3 or 7 days. The ATAF also sells an abbonamento plurigiornaliero, valid for between 2-25 days. These are non-transferable. You can also buy a carta arancio, valid for 7 days on trains and bus lines with the province of Florence. You can buy it from any train, coach or bus company ticket office.

Official taxis are white in Tuscan cities, with a "Taxi" sign on the roof. Only take taxis at official ranks, not offers from touts at the stations. There are supplements for baggage, for rides between 10pm and 7am, on Sundays and on public holidays, and for journeys to and from the airport. If you phone for a taxi, the meter starts to run from the moment you book the taxi; by the time it arrives there could already be several euros clocked up. Generally, travelling by taxi is costly. Taxi drivers are usually honest, but make sure you know what any supplements are for.