Parking in florence

I'll be surprised if you can find a place close in to park for free. Florence is crowded and busy. If there is a parking place there will be a car in it 24 hours a day, 365 days a year just as in any city.

We found an underground parking garage about one mile north of the center for the time we were in Florence. We walked in from there to our hotel. Although in theory your hotel can clear you to drive into the center, we didn't want to risk a very expensive ticket if the hotel forgot to contact the police.

If I had to do it over, I would find lodging in the suburbs with convenient public transport into the center and free or cheap parking.

"We want to find a place to park for free overnight in Florence for 3 days."

My opinion is the same as Brad's: It's not good to assume you can find free overnight parking in Florence for 3 days.

The historic core of Florence is a wonderful place but it's not rental car-friendly.

You asked for an alternative: What many travelers (reporting in here) do is arrange their trip so they don't try to do these 2 things at the same time: 1)have a rental car while in Florence, AND 2) sleep in the historic center of Florence (the part that's included in the ZTL's).

People do one or the other of those, but not both; for example, getting accommodations outside the historic core that provide overnight parking and don't involve having to navigate the ZTL's to get there.

My opinion is based on my personal experience and also monitoring what Florence experts on other travel forums have been saying for several years about overnight parking in Florence.

I say don't even attempt driving in Florence!!
We attempted driving in Florence and could not get out of the city! Round and round with no way out.
To make it worse, they were doing road repair and could not get on the autoroute because the entrance was closed! Not being able to speak Italian, we could not understand the directions for an alternative route! Finally after over an hour I told my sister to follow the tour bus because I am sure that he is getting on the highway. It worked but never again! I say never attempt to drive in any major city in Italy! The train is the only way to go!To make it worse once we got onto the highway, even in the right lane, trucks were honking at us because they felt we were not driving fast enough, which was nuts!
Happy Travels!

Debi is making the case for a GPS. The road signage in Italy leaves a lot to be desired - go with a good GPS.

Several years ago we stayed at the Hilton Hotel Metropole which was right off the autobahn outside the city center. They provided free shuttle service into the city. Next to the Hilton, there is a shopping mall which had parking. Check it out here: http://maps.google.com/maps?layer=c&cbll=43.773394,11.189757&cbp=12,,,1,&ved=0CFEQ2wU&sa=X&ei=xa6GS8KNPJG8M7Oy-NEG When you get to this picture, pan to the left to see the mall. There is bus service on the main street in front of the mall, Via del Cavallaccio. As others have mentioned, the main concern is not driving into the city in order to avoid a ticket that can show up a year after your trip. We did not get a ticket--it's been 2 1/2 yrs. since our trip. Have fun!

Years ago, we stayed at the Hotel Jolly in Florence and they had free parking. We walked to the city center, straight along the river.

Please be careful where you park and read the signs carefully. We thought we lucked out once on a parking space near a busy fair. Turns out it was handicapped parking. Car got towed, took cab to police station to pay, took cab to impound to pick up car. There were 5 of us and cabs only took 4, but we squeezed in to save money. Wasted a lot of time and money. We laugh about it now, but at the time we kicked ourselves.

Now to be on the safe side, we look for parking structures instead of street parking.

Good luck! Florence is wonderful!

I would not recommend driving into or around the city center of Florence. The entire historic city center is a limited traffic zone (ZTL) comprised of 5 interconnected zones. Entering the ZTL or traveling from one zone to another will get you a very heavy fine. You can have your hotel report your license plate number to the local authorities to exempt you from this, but don't count on them doing this for you. Many people receive fines in the mail a year or more after their trip. You absolutely won't need a car for driving in the city of Florence. If you need a car to explore the countryside, then take a taxi to the airport and rent from there, away from the historic center. The entrance to the autostrada is a short distance from the airport. There is no such thing as free parking in Florence. If you go to the section of the helpline entitled "to the boot", you will find many posts loaded with information and warnings against driving in Florence.

As most of the posts above have made clear, let me just repeat what Scott said: "I would not recommend driving into or around the city center of Florence."

For the last several years, that's the advice that's been given by most here, and by others such as the Florence DE at TripAdvisor.

As one of the other posts suggested, some years ago the advice may have been a bit different--but since the ZTL's started being enforced by automatic cameras in the last few years, very very few people recommend driving into or near the Florence city center.