Florence Buses and Trams: Stops and Boarding

Published on Updated on 3 min read
A city bus travels along a street in Florence, with pedestrians and buildings nearby.
A city bus on a Florence street. (Malcolm Garret · Pexels License · Edited)

Florence’s bus and tram stops are useful landmarks when you need to reach the hill or travel beyond the historic centre. Santa Maria Novella station has several boarding points: the stop you need depends on your line and direction. Match the stop name and destination display before boarding, then validate your ticket or confirm your contactless tap.

Walking, buses or trams?

CriterionWalkingUrban busesTrams
Useful journeysShort central sightseeingHill; off-tram accommodation; limited staminaLonger corridors; luggage
CoverageDuomo; Ponte VecchioPiazzale MichelangeloAirport; Careggi; Scandicci
Physical effortSteep hill climbLess climbingPlatform access; final walk
WalkDistanceTime
Santa Maria Novella–Duomoabout 900 metresabout 12 minutes
Duomo–Ponte Vecchioabout 650 metresabout 8 minutes
Ponte Vecchio–Piazzale Michelangeloabout 1.4 kmabout 22 minutes

Walking is the default for central sightseeing. From Ponte Vecchio, the approach to Piazzale Michelangelo is a sustained, fairly steep climb on paved streets and steps. Other walking distances and hills help you judge the effort from your accommodation.

Buses 12 and 13 for the hill

StopLineDirectionServes
Stazione FS SMN12Piazzale Michelangiolo / Rotonda BarbettiRailway station
Stazione Orti Oricellari13Rotonda BarbettiRailway station
Stazione Abside SMN13Piazzale Il DavidRailway station
Porta Romana12Piazzale MichelangioloHill approach

Autolinee Toscane runs buses 12 and 13 around the hill in opposite directions. For the climb described above, line 12 offers a ride from the Porta Romana area to Piazzale San Miniato, followed by a walk to Piazzale Michelangelo’s city panorama. That bus-and-walk journey takes about 9 minutes.

LineDaysFirst departureFinal departure
12Monday–Friday; Saturday; Sunday/public holidays——
13Monday–Friday; seasonal exceptions06:0001:30
Summer operating patterns; departures are scheduled individually.

At a bus stop, signal to the driver as your bus approaches. Once aboard, press the stop-request button before the stop where you want to get off. Do not rely on another passenger requesting it.

The at bus app shows upcoming stop departures and real-time arrivals, helping you identify the service at your boarding point. It also plans journeys, as does the Autolinee Toscane website’s Travel Planner.

T1 and T2 tram stops

StopLineDestination displayServes
Alamanni StazioneT1Careggi Ospedale / Villa CostanzaRailway station
Careggi OspedaleT1Villa CostanzaCareggi
Villa CostanzaT1Careggi OspedaleScandicci
Peretola AeroportoT2San Marco UniversitàAirport
San Marco UniversitàT2Peretola AeroportoSan Marco

T1 links Careggi with Villa Costanza in Scandicci. From Alamanni Stazione, take the Careggi Ospedale direction for Careggi. The journey takes about 18 minutes. T2 connects the airport with San Marco, taking about 31 minutes between its endpoints.

Name
Alamanni Stazione tram stop
Location
Florence, Metropolitan City of Florence Maps
Essential fact
A tram stop beside Santa Maria Novella railway station in Florence.
Paolo Uccello stop on Florence’s tram line 1
Paolo Uccello stop on Florence’s tram line 1, photographed in 2012.
Luca Daviddi · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Edited
DirectionFirstFinal Sun–ThuFinal Fri–Sat
T1 → Careggi05:0000:1201:38
T1 → Villa Costanza04:4400:1201:41
T2 → San Marco05:0023:5801:15
T2 → Airport05:1000:2001:50
Daily service. First and final departures from each terminus; final times are after midnight where shown.

Early T1 departures towards Careggi start at De André between 04:35 and 05:00.

DaysTime bandT1T2
Mon–Thu05:00–06:301010
Mon–Thu06:30–20:304–54–5
Mon–Thu20:30–23:301010
Mon–Thu23:30–00:302522
Friday05:00–06:301010
Friday06:30–20:304–54–5
Friday20:30–00:301010
Friday00:30–02:0016–2518–22
Saturday05:00–06:301111
Saturday06:30–20:305–65–6
Saturday20:30–00:301010
Saturday00:30–02:0016–2518–22
Sun/public holidays05:00–13:30119–11
Sun/public holidays13:30–20:307–97–9
Sun/public holidays20:30–23:301011
Sun/public holidays23:30–00:302522
School holidays05:00–06:301111
School holidays06:30–20:305–75–8
School holidays20:30–23:3010–1810–11
School holidays23:30–00:302522
Intervals in minutes. School-holiday rows are for working days; T2 includes the summer non-school period.

For more station-area boarding detail and other journeys, use tram lines and boarding stops. After trams finish, take a licensed taxi using taxi ranks and booking options.

Tickets, tapping and boarding

The urban single ticket

ProductFareValidityCoverage
Urban single€2.0090 minutes from validation/activationUrban bus–tram transfers; T2 airport
Bus contactless single—90 minutes from tapTram transfers; no regional trains

Florence’s trams are not free: you need a valid ticket. For products beyond a single journey, urban tickets and passes helps you choose what suits your stay.

Buying, validating and inspection

Buy paper tickets from Autolinee Toscane authorised retailers, or digital tickets in at bus, TABNET or Blink. You can also tap to pay on board. Bus readers accept contactless Visa, Mastercard and American Express credit, debit and prepaid cards, plus phones and wearables with supported digitised cards.

Do

  • Insert your paper ticket into the onboard validator immediately on boarding. If it fails, tell the driver and write the date and time on your ticket.
  • Activate app tickets with “Use” (“Utilizza”) when boarding; confirm the countdown.
  • Tap on every bus boarding, including transfers, using the same card or device. Look for green “OK”.
  • On a tram, tap the onboard reader to buy and validate a single ticket.
  • Show the tapped card or device during inspection.

Don’t

  • Treat a red light as payment: the tap failed.
  • Switch between a physical card and its phone version during transfers.
  • Share one card or device between passengers: each can serve one passenger. Separate devices linked to the same card can serve separate passengers.
A yellow card reader mounted inside a city bus.
A bus-mounted card reader illustrates the validator passengers use when boarding.
MART PRODUCTION · Pexels License · Edited

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: fares and charges and services.

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