Florence Journal

Florence City Center Bus Map

Posted a new up to date map of the city center buses on Florence On Line today.

Trenitalia Specials

Trenitalia is offering some deals on the Freciarossa:

Milan-Rome: 39€ in 2 class!
Travel Frecciarossa: an emotion for everyone! Milan- Rome 39€ in 2nd class and 69€ in 1st class!

Rome-Naples: 25€ in 2nd class!
Travel Frecciarossa from Rome to Naples and it costs you 25€ only in 2nd class! You must book your ticket 30 days in advance.

Florence Tramvia is up and running

Well the Tramvia has been running for a while now - I hopped on from the Stazione Leopolda back to Firenze SMN (one stop - just a few minutes) and it was a perfectly fine ride. Very quiet, very smooth. The free rides are over for now however, but the few times I have seen the Tram it always appears to be full, both weekdays and weekends. I think a lot of the negative voices about this project that made it to the press were from people who were never going to ride this thing in the first place - but now that it is here - it seems to be a success.

We have heard some downside/negative rumors: one being that the overhead bar in the car is too high for the local population. This is definitely true! If you are not tall and have to stand where there are no side hand rails, the bar is high! I can see problems with this. I don't know if there are plans to retrofit the cars at all or add straps but it will be interesting to see how they fix this issue. Another was that the trip time is twice as long as projected - that I can't comment on - I don't know what the trip time was supposed to be or what it currently is, but if anyone has heard, please leave a comment.

Anyone ride the Tramvia yet?

We were away this weekend and only just back in Florence - has anyone out there had a chance to ride the Tramvia yet? Hopefully I will tomorrow -

The Tramvia Is Coming!

They have a countdown on the Muoversi a Firenze site:

(Please note the above is a static image from late Friday night - the Tram goes live Sunday morning the 14th of Feb.)

Unfortunately the site is in Italian only - but the short story is that the Tramvia (Line 1) is set to go live on Sunday morning at 6:30 AM. The downside is that this will mean a lot of other changes to traffic patterns, bus routes and stops, etc. If you are coming to Florence or are a resident, you need to get acquainted with these changes! You can also check the ATAF website for news and details on the bus changes (I notice the ATAF site has been updated and seems much more useful now also - good news).

Florence Tramvia, Line 1 Map

The Tramvia (or Tram) Line 1 (from Santa Maria Novella to Villa Costanza in Scandicci) is nearing completion. I think this is going to be great for Florence - but line 1 is definitely more of a commuter than tourist line. Hopefully it will be operational in early 2010. Whether the rest of the line as planned gets finished (around the Duomo and Piazza San Marco, etc.) remains to be seen - but this has been a huge project and it will be fantastic to see this thing working after all these years. Below is a map of line 1:

More info can be found on these websites: www.tramvia.fi.it and www.muoversiafirenze.it.

ZTL, Autovelox map for Florence

This is a new (I think it is new anyway) map from the Comune of Florence that shows the ZTL area of Florence, entry points, Autovelox (the machines that catch you for speeding), and other important things you may need to know about driving around Florence:

One thing to keep in mind, if you do have to drive into the ZTL (and yes, you can in certain instances) is that while you can enter the ZTL to get to your hotel, or a garage, etc. - you can NEVER drive through one of the "Corsie riservate" entrances - at any time. The ZTL is open certain hours every day (at night, Sundays, etc.) but you have to enter in the right places!

Another tip - as long as you get your hotel or parking garage to call your plate in, you can pretty much get away with driving anywhere in the ZTL - but again - just not through the "Corsie riservate".

Renting a car in Italy

We just became an affiliate of Europcar. We have used them in the past here in Florence and have always had good experiences. I actually got the deal of my life from Europcar in Narbonne (in France) a couple of summers ago when we were driving back to Florence - they managed to find a car that needed to be back in Italy - so I got a big vehicle that fit all of our summer plunder from the states, and I didn't get any drop off in a different country charge or anything. Anyway - if you rent from the link below it helps keep Florence Journal afloat!

Florence Train Station

Good reference post on Florence On Line for the Florence train station - or Firenze SMN. They just added some new pictures too.

New Florence Bus Route Changes

Due to the new pedestrian zone around the Duomo, several bus routes have changed. Below is the map, and details of the changed routes: