WARNING. The Firenze card USED to include bus fares. All of the travel guide books STATE this. Florence changed this AFTER the printing of the 2016 books. We were RUDELY pulled off of a bus and fined $50.00 euro a piece. They offered to take us to a ATM or the police dept. The internet included on the Firenze card doesn't ever connect. At 72 euro the card is NOT a VALUE.
Posted by
Reading, PA, USA
1592 posts
When we were in Florence we had Firenze cards and found them to be a great value even though we never used a bus or the "free" WiFi.
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
15852 posts
You can add public transit/wifi by purchasing the Firenzecard + along with the Firenzecard for an additional 5,00 €.
http://www.firenzecard.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20&Itemid=119&lang=en
But Florence is compact enough that a lot of visitors don't feel they need to use the transit system at all. And yes, an after-printing change like this is why one can never completely rely on information in a guidebook so it's best to double-check websites before the trip.
I had posted a heads up for this change back in Feb.:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/change-to-the-firenze-card
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7049 posts
I never rely on guide books for info about tourist passes (or anything other than general info) because they're not as up-to-date as a website listing the current attractions or services covered. Like anything else, read the fine print instead of going off of third-party advice. Things change, it's not static. Everybody needs to crunch their own numbers to see if such cards will really work for them - they mostly don't and that's how the vendor makes money. People overestimate how many museums they can cram into 3 days - or they don't bother doing the math to begin with. They figure the ease of buying one card somehow makes financial sense. Not always the case.