20: Florence and Tuscany in VS .NET

Drawer ECC200 in VS .NET 20: Florence and Tuscany

subject to passport control In most cases, you ll go directly to luggage delivery and then Customs Here you ll find two gates: one for those who have something to declare (beyond allowance), and one for those who don t: this is where there may be random checks Locally called Peretola, from the name of the village nearby, the Amerigo Vespucci airport is only 4km (21 2 miles) outside of Florence, a few minutes away by public transportation, which you ll find just outside the arrivals concourse A taxi takes about ten minutes and costs about 20 ($32) Otherwise, you can take the Volainbus shuttle bus for 450 ($720); buses leave for the 20-minute trip every 20 minutes between 5:30 am and 8:30 pm, and hourly after that, and arrive at the Florence s SITA bus terminal (Via Santa Caterina 15r), just behind the central rail station of Santa Maria Novella You can buy tickets onboard You can also get into Florence by regular city bus (no 62; 120 /$190), which takes about half an hour and also arrives at Santa Maria Novella The Galileo Galilei airport is only 3km (2 miles) south of Pisa a tenminute taxi ride but 80km (50 miles) west of Florence The easiest way to get from Pisa to Florence is to board the dedicated shuttle train (wwwtrenitaliait) from the Pisa airport s terminal, which arrives into Florence inside Santa Maria Novella rail station; it makes ten runs a day, costs 520 ($830), and takes about an hour

Trains to Florence pull into Stazione Santa Maria Novella (% 055288765), which is often abbreviated as SMN You ll find a luggage check at the head of Track 16 A last-minute hotel reservations desk and a tourist information point can arrange for and distribute some information, such as the free city map; this is also where you can pick up your reserved tickets for the Uffizi or the Accademia (see Exploring Florence, later in this chapter) Public transportation is just outside the station, where you ll find a taxi stand and a bus terminal with lines to basically anywhere in town Located at the northwestern edge of the historic district, the station is also within walking distance of most attractions

Florence s tradition of independence is probably behind the towns peculiar way of marking street addresses: Restaurant, office, and shop doors are numbered independently from residential and hotel doors The first set of numbers is usually painted in red and always marked with the letter r appended to the number (for rosso, red ); the second is painted in black or blue Therefore it can easily happen that no 1r (office or business) and no 1 (private residence or hotel, which is where it gets confusing) are in different buildings, and maybe a few door numbers apart

The tourist office (APT, Via A Manzoni 16, 50121 Firenze; % 055-23320; Fax: 055-234-6286; wwwfirenzeturismoit) maintains three tourist info points in town: at Via Cavour 1r (% 055-290832; open Mon Sat 8:30 am 6:30 pm, Sun 8:30 am 1:30 pm); at SMN rail station, Piazza Stazione 4/a (% 055-212245; open Mon Sat 9 am 7 pm, Sun 8:30 am 2 pm); and at Borgo Santa Croce 29r (% 055-234-0444; open Mon Sat 9 am 7 pm [until 5 pm in winter], Sun 9 am 2 pm)

Florence is very safe; the major crime is pickpocketing, an activity that traditionally occurs in the crowded areas of the historic district The free tourist office map is completely adequate for most visitors, especially if you combine it with the free bus map you can get from ATAF (see the By bus section, later), but if you re an ambitious explorer and don t feel satisfied, you can buy a cartina con stradario (map with street directory) at any newsstand for about 6 ($960)