This question is a two-parter actually. One, I found out that there is a rail pass that includes two rental car days. It seems cheaper than buying the rail pass and renting a car separately. Has anyone had any experience with this? Also, since we will have the car for at least one night is there a decent place to park? We will be staying in an apartment near the Uffizi. I should also mention that we will have our one year old son with us. Any advice. Thanks so much.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
Florence is not the best place in Europe to have a rental car that you have to overnight park, in fact it might be one of the most challenging places to do that. Overnight parking a rental car in the historic core area of Florence is not the easy, straightforward, or cheap option that it is in many US and Canadian cities.Staying in an apartment near the Uffizi is a bad place to try to do this--if the apartment owner has any ideas, accept them no matter the cost; or for a cheaper alternative, don't do a rental car while in Florence, most of the places you want to go in 2 days you can reached by train.I'm not aware that there's any on-street overnight parking, I never found any, back before I learned that, for me, having a car overnight in Florence wasn't worth the hassles.When I asked once at the TI where the overnight parking was, the answer was basically "there isn't any overnight parking for tourists inside the inner ring road, you should arrange for parking with your hotel"--but that won't work for you. Many travelers have reported here that they have received €100/$150 tickets for driving their rental car past the cameras and into the Florence Zona Traffico Limitato (ZTL), only cars that are registered with the city traffic control computers are permitted within this zone. Here's just the latest of many discussions of this here:Don't Drive Rental Car Into Historic Core of FlorenceIf you're driving around near the Uffizi for 2 days, if you're not careful it's possible you could get several of these tickets. Think of it this way: every time you drive your car past this sign, it costs you $150.
Posted by
Florida, USA
12172 posts
We were leasing a car and Florence was the in the middle of our trip so we had to find parking. We found a place probably a mile and half walk from our hotel. Packing light helped a lot but we would have been better off parking near a train station and riding into the city.
This was also true of Venice, we parked there but it was a waste of time and money. Next time we'll follow the advice to park on the mainland and train into Venice.
Posted by
OP
Yucaipa
19 posts
Thanks for the advice. How about parking at a train station and then going into the city? Any advice on which train station. Again, we'll have a one year old...it may be best to just take the train, but I've always wanted to drive through the countryside--maybe next time.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
I parked under the main train station in 2003 and it was €2/hour with no daily rate. In 2006 the rate was €3/hour, with no daily rate, you park 12 hours and it's €3/hour x 12 hrs = €36 x 1.50 = $54 for 12 hours of overnight parking.Driving in the country is worth doing but not when you have to park overnight back in Florence. You want to structure it so that when you drive in the country you come back to a suburban accommodation that provides parking and easy access to the freeways (which aren't free). Country accommodations make parking easier.