parking in florence to visit academia

Big surprise. The Academia is in a restricted driving zone (ZTL). You cannot drive there without computerized cameras taking pictures of your license plate. By the time you get the ticket a year later, its $150. And, you can get several tickets. If you don't know what a ZTL is or how to drive in those areas, don't do it.

Why do you need a rental car from Lucca to Florence to Siena. There is excellent, frequent and really cheap train service between these 3 cities and towns. Trains are at least once an hour. Travel time is 1.5hrs between Lucca and Florence and the fare is 5 Euro. The travel time between Florence and Siena is also 1.5hrs. The fare is 6.10Euro.

I would suggest either turning in the rental car in Lucca or not renting there. Its useless in Florence.

We are staying in Lucca with family for a few weeks and are just going exploring. We are looking for where to park on the outskirts and maybe take a cab/bus or whatever into town.

We did most of our travelling through Italy by car as it is more economical if you travel as a family. And we spent half the time in rural Tuscany which is not well connected to public transportation. Had no problems with the ZTLs in Siena or Pisa.

However, we opted not to take the car into Florence but took the bus instead. No worries about parking but we ended up being very restricted with the available bus times and thus had only 7 hours total in the city (well, part of that was a later than planned departure due to some liberal tasting of the agriturismo's own wine production the night before ...).

If you want to take a car (maybe you can borrow it for free from the family or for another reason) Rick Steves suggests to follow the signage towards the centre and then use one of the parking lots along the way signed with a big P. He suggests the "Parcheggio Parterre" just beyond Piazza della Liberta.

There is a map here:
http://www.firenzeparcheggi.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=81&Itemid=81

We used his suggestions for parking in Siena and Pisa, cities notorious for ZTLs and difficult parking situations and it worked out very smoothly. Our GPS listed parcheggios by name as well and could guide us.

Thanks for the information and advice.

Valerie - it is actually quite easy to drive and park in the large lots just on the outside of the city. Rick has info in his books on how to do this and as long as you realize that you are NOT going to be driving and parking next to the Academia, you will be fine. We drove to Florence one day from our nearby agriturismo and we took the train into town one day. Both dropped us fairly close to the things we wanted to see.

Actually we have driven to many of the Tuscan towns - Siena as well, and always parked in the large, well marked parking lots that are on the outside of the walled cities, restricted zones, etc. These cities are pretty small so it is not as if you are parking miles away - it is often right next to the main part of town.

Sounds great. Thanks!

There are lots you can find in the city but it is pricey - about 30 euros a night.

Going to park outside the city near the Accademie and am wondering how far of a walk it is to the Uffizi Museum. Does anyone know??