Looking at a VRBO on Via Maso Finiguerra on West side/rental car area.
Wondering if anyone has any thoughts about this area - is it nice? Is it safe? Would be staying here with small children also. I'd like something more central but it seems to be easier to find a space over there that won't break the bank and will fit my entire group.
The area around via Maso da Finiguerra, via Palazzuolo and surrounding streets is known for a bit of urban decay, vagrancy, drug related activity, and micro criminality (shop and car break-ins particularly). It’s always been that way a bit (the Business School of the University of Florence I attended was nearby), but now is a bit worse with the arrivals of many unhoused migrants who tend to hang out in that area. During the day the area is perfectly ok, but after dark less so. Nobody will mug you at a gunpoint, but you may be bothered by panhandlers, drug dealing activity by some pushers, and a woman walking alone might be targeted for unpleasant behavior, occasionally there have been instances of theft and purse snatching of tourists or seniors, but rarely (and those can happen everywhere). The main complaint is the “spaccate” (shop window smash and grab).
Now I don’t want you to discourage you, because by the standard of American cities, that area would be considered better and safer than Pacific Heights in San Francisco or the West Village in Manhattan, so I guess everything is relative. However I just wanted to warn you that by Italian standards, that is not the absolute best area of Florence’s city center.
We stayed in an apartment on that same street in 2022, it was just fine.
Easy to get to the station, there’s a small supermarket nearby and easy walking to the centre.
No one bothered us one bit, day or night.
We had dinner two nights running at the restaurant on the corner.
I’ve never found that place listed again as I would definitely go back!
If your apartment faces the street you can hear the bells from the Duomo.
@Roberto - Thanks for your reply. This was my concern. We live just outside a big city in the U.S. so don't think we'd be shocked, or too ill equipped to deal with it, but probably prefer to stay elsewhere in that case.
@S J - Nice to know that even less desirable area isn't necessarily all that sketchy. Gives me a little peace of mind when looking. Thanks!
Walk southwest for 5 minutes, cross the bridge, and you will find yourself in the neighborhood where we stayed for a month on our most recent trip to Florence --- we loved this neighborhood and would happily stay there again. There are several bus stops for the little electric buses that will take your family closer to the center of Florence, but it is actually just a 20 minute walk from, say, Sant'Onofrio to the Duomo.
As I said the intersection between via Palazzuolo and via Maso da Finiguerra wouldn't be my first choice. That area has been at the center of many local media reports and residents' protests against the current and previous Mayor due to the increase of homelessness, crack cocaine drug dealing at all hours of the day, shops' "spaccate" (windows' smashing and grabbing), harassment by panhandlers (often under the influence), urban decay in general, and a famous assault to a 91 y.o. former Olympian which shocked the city (and the country) a couple of years ago, since it is not something one would expect in generally safe Florence (here is that video). If you google the name of those two streets and the Italian word "degrado" (urban decay) you will see dozens of articles in the last year alone.
