Two nights in Florence with a car

booking.com shows 1800+ options when 'parking' is selected.

How many you need to shelter, your budget, and preference for location are additional filters to apply.

I suspect very few on this forum have 'parking' as a requirement when visiting Florence.

Happy travels

If you give us more information, such as type of accommodations, budget, proximity to where, I can give some suggestions outside the city center but with easy transportation to the city center. I wouldn’t drive with a car into the ZTL.

Hello!
Are you just making the short trip and returning to Lake Garda? Personally, it would be much easier to train from Milan to Florence. We have driven within the city and parked at a garage that registered our vehicle, but it was definitely an experience that I prefer not to repeat. If you prefer to have the car, you can park outside of the city at a large lot off the autostrada that has a tram directly into the city; https://parcheggiovillacostanza.it/it/

Happy travels,
Amanda

So, you’ll be based on Lake Garda, but don’t say how long you’ll be staying there for. You say you’re renting a car in Milan, you don’t, however, say how many people will be in your party. You then say you want to spend two nights in Florence with a car? Why? Take the train. As many others on this forum have pointed out in many different threads (all are searchable on this webpage) Florence, like most Italian cities, has a ZTL and unless you’re registering the vehicle with a hotel, which then registers it with the city, it’s impossible to even enter the city with a car. Leave the car, take the train. For example, if you travel from Peschiera del Garda to Florence by train, prices start at €69, and if you’re traveling as a family, children under 14 travel for free under the frecce family package., but it’s a lot cheaper than the hassle of renting a car, driving to Florence, which entails toll roads, parking it and then having to walk into the center or taking a taxi to it, whereas if you take the train you’ll end up in central Florence. Train from Garda to Florence is about 2 hours, but if you’re driving it’ll be more than 3 hours, not accounting for traffic, parking etc. FYI the entire trip of Garda to Florence can be done in total for at least €138 but can go up depending on which package one chooses.

I am assuming you want the car before and after Florence ?
If not get rid of it before Florence- you do no want or need a car in Florence-take the train
Or rearrange your itinerary so Florence is after all the locations where you will need a car

If you insist on keeping while in Florence take Roberto’s advice on a stay outside the center for parking

Don’t forget to get IDPs for every driver before you leave the states-it is required by law, rental agencies can and do ask for it and will deny your rental if you don’t have

If you keep the car, there is a clear rule for hotels inside the Florence ZTL. You can drive to your hotel or its garage by the shortest route, but the hotel must send your plate number to the police within three hours of you entering. If it does not, you get a fine. So ask the hotel before you book if they register plates, and give your plate at check-in right away. The ZTL is active Monday to Friday 7:30 to 20:00 and Saturday 7:30 to 16:00, and off on Sundays. The easy option is Villa Costanza, a park and ride right on the A1 with the T1 tram into the center. Fines are 83 to 332 euros, plus a fee from the rental company.

Hello,
Additional information-
We are a party of 4(mother and daughter and 2 adult cousins), flying into linate and driving to Lake Garda to stay at a family member's flat in Desenzano. We will be in Italy for 10 nights. We wanted to drive to San Gimignano and figured we would continue to Florence for a couple of days.

The info we need is your plans for while in Florence, and after. If there is no pressing need for the car after this point, it would make your life so much easier to drop the car and use train.
It makes perfect sense to have the car up until that point. If you need it, that’s fine, but it does affect how you go about choosing your hotel, etc.

After Florence, we go back to Lake Garda, and take day trips on train and visit some wineries in Garda.
Unfortunately, two in the group have never been to Italy and are possibly trying to do too much.
Thank you for your advice.

Where do you fly out of?
See if you can rearrange and put Florence at end of trip
Drop the car there then after Florence head to your departure city

I don’t think SG is worth that long drive, however Florence is worth a few days
There are plenty of other more worthwhile locations than San Gimignano

Putting SG and Florence mid trip means you spend better part of 2 days getting to and from (out of just a 9 full days trip) and have to deal with car hassle in Florence

Given your plans to visit Florence and San Gimignano, you have two options.
- One option is to leave the car with the relatives in Desenzano and use the train as suggested above. That might be the more comfortable and easy option since it doesn’t require the hassle of driving the 4 hours each way. To visit San Gimignano you could take a day trip by bus or by train+bus. In two days (I presume 3 nights) I would limit my visit to Florence only to make it simple.
- The second (more challenging) option would be to drive to San Gimignano then go to Florence. In SG you would need to park the car at the lot near the town walls. The lot is not guarded so your luggage in the car could be exposed to potential theft. Not a frequent event in SG, but possible. If you plan to drive to Florence and stay at a hotel with parking which also is conveniently located near the light rail trolley for the city center, I usually stay at the hotel below. I use it primarily when I have a flight to catch (and usually have a car), but from there it’s very easy to catch the light rail T2 line and head downtown. The hotel is also very easy to access from the freeway and definitely easy to catch the freeway back to Desenzano. It’s a modern nice 4 star hotel, so it’s not cheap (about $250/night in summer) but maybe it’s a bit cheaper when you go. They have a parking lot where you can leave the car while you stay (you won’t need or even want to use a car to see Florence).

https://maps.app.goo.gl/j77s5Xq3fL2ZALnc7?g_st=ic