Bus to Fiesole--problems?

Ask Roberto da Firenze, who reports that his father was once a fare inspector for the Florence transport department. He had a somewhat different take on intimidating "ticket checkers", having to deal with clueless hippie fare dodgers.

Buy a ticket and validate it in the stamping machine where you enter the bus and you will have no worries about fare inspectors, intimidating or not.

We had a lovely day visiting Fiesole from Florence. This was in May of this year. I don’t quite remember how we paid, but I think it was with apple pay. We did not have any issues going in either direction.
I appreciate your concern and maybe others can talk about how you can show proof of having paid to take the bus.
We loved the ancient ruins in Fiesole and walking all around the town.

Carry a pen, and if the validation machine is not working, write the date and time you boarded on it.
You will be fine.
Some buses have two machines, one at the front, one by a rear door if there is one.
If it’s crowded and you can’t reach one, ask the other passengers to pass the ticket back to do it for you.

If you stamp the ticket at the validating machine as soon as you board the ticket will be valid for 90 minutes thereafter throughout the system. There are also digital payments options available (details in the link a bottom).

Some of the American hippie fare dodgers that my father had to contend with in the early 1970s, when the onboard ticket selling by a human vendor was replaced by machines, are today commenting in this board, posing as retired law abiding tourists. Of that I’m sure.

https://www.at-bus.it/en/howtopurchase
https://www.at-bus.it/en/talk-at/faq

I have been checked a few times and since I had a ticket properly validated was never fined although it was touch and go once as we were very close to the end of the time period for that ticket's validity.

I have also heard an American tourist tell another one 'Oh you don't need to really validate the ticket and you can ride on it over and over -- if they stop you, you are just a 'clueless tourist and don't understand.' I suspect the increase in enforcement comes from the increase of people who think like this.

These are helpful comments. I very much appreciate the direct links, Roberto, to find out more about the train system itself, various purchase points and types of purchase, etc. Also downloadable timetables for the various lines. Looks like the bus to Fiesole is an urban line (green) and runs very frequently.

I am glad to know that you enjoyed your day in Fiesole, mlstimetotravel. If you paid with apple pay, I'm wondering if you were able to choose the contactless pay option directly ON board the bus?

How ubiquitous is the availability of the contactless pay option currently? In the FAQ section of the Autoliine Toscane website (the link Roberto gave), it says their "goal" is to eventually make it available on all buses...indicating that some have it, some don't.

I know there is a clear insignia on outside of the buses that have it (that little wireless "woo woo sign" with credit cards shown beneath).

We would be using a major credit card, not apple pay, but that would be great if we could get on and purchase/validate ticket with a a tap of our credit card on the machine as we board. ( I also know from FAQs that each passenger has to buy their own ticket individually and separately: one tap = one ticket, so my husband would do his own). Just wondering if the Florence-to-Fiesole bus is a frequent and major enough line to offer this option.

I think the digital payments are available and active on all AT buses throughout Tuscany effective the end of March 2024. That was reported with big fanfare on all Florence newspaper since Tuscany was the first region to have that service available on all buses. I’ve used buses only a few times last summer (at Giglio Island and Florence) and I had paper tickets but the validating machines were all capable of accepting digital payments and many Italians used that method.

I found also an article in English about that big news in Tuscany:

https://www.theflorentine.net/2024/03/27/public-transport-florence-tuscany-becomes-contactless/

I think The Florentine is still the only English language paper in Florence, so it’s a good idea for any person interested in going to Florence to save it in their favorite sites.

Once again, most helpful information and links, Roberto! Thanks to all of you who chimed in on this topic!’