free parking just outside Florence

Any of those days will be ok but remember that August 15th is a national holiday, which will mean lots of things are closed everywhere.
Just know that the Uffizi, Accademia and other museums in Florence are actually open, so coming in to Florence on that day might actually work out well if you don't want to spend the day at "home" at your B&B or apartment relaxing by the pool ;).
I think it will be a quiet day because if it continues to be this warm, lots of people will take long weekends because of the holiday (or the entire week off) and leave Florence toward the seaside and beaches. So you'll find less people in town - expect to find more visitors like you than locals ;-)

Piazzale Michelangelo would be a great place to park for your day trip, and walk down into the center. The spots there are almost always full.... BUT people are constantly stopping just for the view and then taking off --- just have a little bit of patience and wait for someone to free up a space or head back along the viale michelangelo and park along the street.

You can get more tips for parking here:
http://www.visitflorence.com/florence-maps/parking-lots-in-florence.html

Hope this helps!!
 
Thanks Lourdes!

Would it be easier to park on the streets with it being a bank holiday?

How early in the morning would you have to arrive for there to be plenty of spaces in p.Michelangelo or is it full 24/7?
 
actually since it is a bank holiday, if you find street parking anywhere feel free to park there, I am pretty sure holidays, like sundays, parking is free! ;-) just stay out of the ZTL area!
 
Parking in Florence

Hi,

I know you have answered many questions about parking in Florence and I am sorry to trouble you with the similar question again. I have read many posts about free and paid parking that you wrote and questions from other people but I feel safe if I can double confirm with you again.

I will be traveling by car in Italy and will be driving from South into Florence. I have booked a hotel near Piazza di Signoria which I believe is a traffic restrict area.

I have sent inquiry to the hotel about parking. There is one near the hotel which costs 25 euros per day which I am willing to pay. The problem is we won't know the plate number until the day we get the car (11/14). Our check in day is 11/24. Do you think this is enough for the hotel owner/police to process car number to remove on the list?

If the parking near the hotel or the plate number thing fails, which paid parking which is not in the traffic restrict zone, will be the easiest one to access to the hotel and how? I am looking at Sansovino parking but I can't find the tram map and not sure whether this is easy to access to my hotel. Since my family and I will have three heavy suitcases, I would appreciate it if you can tell me the parking where it goes to my hotel in one ride. Thank you very much.
 
Ciao lulu (that's my nickname in spanish :)) Not a problem, always happy to help with these types of questions!

I can confirm that Piazza della Signoria is definitely in the limited traffic area.

As far as the parking goes, you shouldn't have any problems with having enough time to send the license plate to the hotel. Just send them an email, tell them you are arriving on that day and that's your license plate number so that they will communicate it to the police and you'll have permission to enter the center and head to the hotel to drop off luggage and then on to the garage.
Giving them the license plate ahead of time just gives them more time to do the communication - most actually do it on the day of arrival, and work to cancel the fine rather than preventing it, so you should be fine. Just make sure to remind them when you check-in that you sent the license plate, in case they need to recheck that they've done the communication.

If you want to leave the car outside of the ZTL area, the best one for you would be the parking lots at Piazza Beccaria/Sant'Ambrogio (they are 2 separate lots) since there are two small buses that depart from Piazza Beccaria and head toward the center. Bus C2 stops on Via Condotta, just 1 block to the north of from Piazza della Signoria, while bus C3 stops right before Ponte Vecchio, right by the Uffizi Gallery so also 1 block to the south of Piazza della Signoria. Both would be the best choice for you to park and then get to the hotel, if you don't want to drive in....

Just so that everyone knows, the Sansovino lot is perfect, with the tram stop right in front of the parking lot.... but it takes you the SMN train station. So for others, it might be better if they are close to the SMN train station.... but in your case, it is still a 10 min walk to Piazza della Signoria and with luggage I think the other lots in Beccaria are better. So it all depends on where people are heading!
 
Parking in Florence

Hi,
My girlfriend and I are planing to do a trip around Tuscany by cycling. We will came to Florence by car. Does anybody knows a good parking spot for 5 days (safe and cheep - free is an option :cool: )? Sunnday till friday... :confused:
It can be somewhere around Florence as well.

Thank you all for recommednations!

Grega and Tina
 
Hi Lourdes,

Thanks for your excellent summary of parking options in Florence. I'd appreciate your help with some questions:

  • It looks as if Piazzale Michelangelo can be a difficult option at some times of year. How busy would you expect it to be (i.e. how difficult to find a parking) during the evening in early May?
  • The next best option seems to be at the COOP supermarket off Viale Nenni. Since it's a store parking lot, do you know if one can park there overnight without problems from the management? Also. my reading of the tram schedule is that the tram into Florence runs at intervals of about 6 to 10 minutes, ending just after midnight. Does that seem correct to you?
  • How significant is the risk of theft (from the car, or of the car itself) for overnight parking in either of these locations?

Brendt
 
Ciao brendt,

Glad you're finding the information useful. My recommendations for May would be to head to the Piazzale and see if you find space, depending on the time you might find it busy or in any case find something relatively quickly (turnover is fast, many go see the view, leave in 15-20 min).
If you don't find anything there, then I'd also look below the Piazzale. The easiest way is to head down the Viale Michelangelo toward Piazza Ferrucci and at the stoplight turn left on to Via dei Bastioni. You might find street parking there. Remember that street parking you can park on is marked with BLUE lines (the white lines are for residents, don't park there). These are FREE between 8pm and 8am so if you're looking just for parking at night, you can look for parking closer to where you might be staying. Street parking, and overnight parking at the COOP is fine, just don't leave suitcases or anything that might call unnecessary attention to the car. If you park at the COOP, feel free to leave it closer to the store rather than far away.
Yes, you're reading the tram schedule correctly!
 
park in Piazzale Michelangelo

Hello,
we are going to visit Florence soon in April, but I have just heard that they closed the park in Piazzale Michelangelo and that this place is no longer accesible ? I would be very grateful if someone can confirm that or I'm just wrong....
thank you very much for your help,
best regards from Kraków, Poland
Aga
 
Ciao Aga,

There are plans to close the piazza as a parking lot (by next year), but for now, it is still there - so you can definitely try to find parking there while you are in Florence!
 
Free parking

Hi Lourdes and everyone,
we will be in Florence for 2 nights on May 27th-29th. We will be staying Loggia Fiorentina on Via San Gallo.
I think it's in ZTL, yes? So we would like to find free parking for those two days.
I think we have few options:
- Piazzale Michelangelo (which is overcrowded and not recommended to leave at night)
- COOP supermarket off Viale Nenni.
- Parking lot neat Arcipresi tram stop.
- COOP supermarket on Viale Talenti.

What would be the best choice for us?
Thank you!
 
Will be driving in from Munich

Hi Lourdes, we will need to park outside the ZTL nearest to Via Dei Fossi. Please help! We will be staying in an apartment for three days and we have someone with us with limited mobility. We know we will probably get a cab to drive us in but I'm having trouble deciding which lot is best. You are very knowledgeable and I trust your advice.

Thank you so much,
 
Via dei Fossi is definitely in the ZTL area and thus you can't reach it. I am assuming you will park the car while you are in Florence and not using it, so need safe parking lot.

The closest lots I'd recommend - take a look at the map at the top of the page here
http://www.visitflorence.com/florence-maps/parking-lots-in-florence.html -
are:
- Porta al Prato - it is right by the Leopolda station so there are the minibuses C2 and C3 that leave from here and head across town along the Arno river, offering another option for you instead of taxis.
- Sansovino - costs a bit less per day - and is right along the T1 tram line that takes you into the SMN train station. Walk from there to Via dei Fossi is not far but you can also catch bus 6, 11 or 12 from the station for a few stops to take you to via dei fossi. The buses are all in that ring area in front of the station.

Enjoy Florence!
 
Parking near Ponte Vecchio

I am staying at a hotel near Ponte Vecchio with my parents for two nights. I was wondering which is the closest parking spot?

I am currently considering the Sansovino one. Any advice is appreciated. :)
 
Questions on parking hired cars

Hello.
First of all, thank you for all the amazing information you provide.
I am visiting Florence in August. We are are a group of five and have already rented an apartment for 11 days at via del Moro.
Apart from visiting Florence for several days, we have decided to visit the nearby cities by train: Siena, Pisa, Lucca and Arezzo can be reached more or less easily. However, after reading and more reading, we have just found out that we have to hire a car to visit places that cannot be reached by train, like San Gimignano, Montepulciano and so on, that clearly deserve a visit. So we are hiring a car for three days.
However, after reading about ZTL and considering the risks of the car being damaged (excess insurance to pay, oh oh), we are looking for a way to minimize the risks of fines and car being damaged somehow.
So we are thinking about several different possibilities:
  • Finding a car rental service outside ZTL that can be reached easily (go and back) from our apartment.
  • A plan B would be a car rental service that allows returning the car outside ZTL (for instance, Florence airport). I believe that ZTL cameras control access, not exiting. Is it right? In this case we will have to take a transportation from airport to SMN, that seems possible.
Apparently, car rental services close too early to return the car in the same day (except those located at the airport). So we would need to find a cheap parking outside ZTL that allows us to reach via del Moro after parking (by tram, bus or -would be great- on foot). What would you do?
I know this is a complex question. I am just writing to you in case there is an obvious answer. As we are five we need to calculate if the price of five tickets would be silly to spend.
Any help would be highly appreciated.
Best regards and thank you in advance.
 
Sansovino parking...or Hertz?

Hello.
I have read carefully the forum and have found that Sansovino parking would be optimal. However, I am a bit confused. Looking for a car rental service I have found that Sansovino 53 is EXACTLY the Hertz address. I have managed to find it at Google Street View. Is it right? Is the parking related somehow with Hertz?
However, another searches seem to show that Sansovino 53 is "Parknet", but I cannot find it at Google Street View where your map indicates. It has no website so I cannot book ahead. Does anybody know if it is possible? In fact, do I need to do it or there will be plenty of free space?
Thanks to anybody that could answer me.
-Javier.
 
Jotavi:

Please read this:
http://www.visitflorence.com/florence-car-rental/

You are really close to the Borgo di Ognissanti area where there are many car rental agencies so it would make sense to rent from there.

You are also very close to the SMN train station, easy walking distance.

So my suggestion would be to rent from there, and if you rent for several days, to park (take a look at the map at the top: http://www.visitflorence.com/florence-maps/parking-lots-in-florence.html) at either the Coop parking off Viale Nenni (free) or the Sansovino one (paid) - both are very close to tram stops that take you to SMN so would be easy to get back to your apartment.
 
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