Autolinee Toscane

We visited Florence in October 2022 and rode public transit nearly every day for two weeks.

In 2019, Tuscany consolidated their public transportation into a single company, Autolinee Toscane. Unified transit systems are good because they allow riders to work with a single system (single policies, website, app, etc.). However, Autolinee has actually taken the Florence public transportation system backwards with the consolidation.

In our experience, we only found one method that works for tourists to ride the bus/tram: €1.50 tickets that are purchased in advance from a machine (rarely seen) or a tobacconist (fairly common, marked with a “T” sign and an Autolinee sticker on the door). Some older write-ups, as well as Autolinee’s marketing materials, state that there are discounted 10-packs available (aka a 10×90 or a cornet), or monthly passes. We would have been interested in any of these, but we could not find a single tobacconist that offered anything other than single-ride tickets. Autolinee has an app, but the app requires an SMS validation code, and that code never arrived on either of our phones. The buses/trams used to have credit card readers, but those were apparently deactivated due to COVID (yes, that is what we read). Tickets may be available from the driver, but this is far from guaranteed, and they will cost €2.50, and the driver will not provide change.

So the best system for tourists is to purchase paper tickets in advance of boarding. Once you have your ticket and you board the bus or tram, you “validate” it by inserting it into the yellow timestamp machine. Make sure you stamp the correct side, and that the machine actually printed the timestamp! From that point you have 90 minutes to ride, with unlimited transfers.

This works for Florence itself. The system is more complicated if you wish to ride to an area that is designated as “extra-urban.” Florence to Campi Bisenzio (8 miles) was a normal “urban” ticket, but if we wanted to go from Campi Bisenzio to Prato (4 miles), it required a specific ticket, like a train would.

We read a number of horror stories about tourists getting €40-€100 fines for not having the correct ticket, or not properly validating their tickets. We personally saw a few tourists board at the airport, attempt to purchase tickets from the driver but be denied.

But in our weeks of riding the system on a daily basis, not once did we see anyone checking tickets. Not a single fare enforcement officer. It appeared to be entirely on the honor system. Not encouraging this behavior, but you are likely safe if you end up on board without tickets, especially if you are traveling a short time. (Our experience was different in other Italian cities, where fare enforcement was stricter.)

We also experienced ghost buses that were scheduled but never showed up, as if that route was just skipped. This happened on an almost-daily basis, both in Florence and in the suburbs. In addition, we experienced a surprise one-day strike that ghosted nearly 75% of the scheduled routes. Add in general unreliability of the timetables, and it made planning difficult, and also generally prevented us from getting to Florence early in the day.

Contrast that with the two tram lines, which we found to be generally reliable, with frequent service.

If staying within walking distance of sights is not possible, we recommend finding a place to stay that is close to a tram stop instead of a bus stop, and using the tram to get in and out of central Florence.