Transportation in Florence: Vespas, Buses, and More Vespas
Florence is a relatively small city, so for our stay here, we are able to walk to wherever we would like to go. Our classes are held in an international school for learning Italian called La Scuola Leondardo DaVinci, which is about a 10 minute walk from our apartments down curving, stone-paved streets. We generally have our classes in the afternoon, following an outing in the morning and a break for lunch. Our outings are to various museums or churches in Florence, all of which are in walking distance. The walks can be very hot, but not unenjoyable because there is so much to see while traveling through the city.
As part of the dialogue, we also have scheduled day trips to other cities to learn about their significance in the scientific revolution. We will travel to and from Vinci, Pisa, and Bologna either by coach bus or by train. There are local buses throughout Florence that travel to the outskirts of the city, but we have not used them. Everything is close enough that it is generally faster to walk than to find the bus stops and wait to get on. I personally have not seen many of the buses while we are walking around, but I believe their routes frequent more of the outer city than the downtown areas. I have heard that the buses do not run very consistently with their schedules, and can be rather packed, but they can be very useful if travelling to the opposite end of the city, for example.
The major modes of transportation in Florence, besides walking and busing, are riding either vespas or small cars. It is very common to see up to 20 vespas parked along a road – there seems to be even more of them than cars in the city. The streets in Florence are very narrow, with just barely enough room for two smart cars (Fiats for example) to pass by each other. Because of this, in addition to the crowds that so often block roads, vespas seem to be the most efficient method to travel in the city, as they can maneuver the streets and parking spaces much easier than cars.
Overall, Florence is a very pedestrian-friendly city with most of the major attractions and housing in close proximity. In comparison, Rome is a much larger city so we will be taking buses to travel to our outings rather than walking. I cannot speak too much about transportation in Rome since we have not been yet, but I have heard that the buses are fairly efficient.
