Bus System in Florence

Florence has a good bus system to move in and around the city. You can save quite a bit of money getting around in Italian cities by using the bus instead of taxis, consider that a minimum taxi fare is usually more or as much as 3 bus tickets. ATAF is the local bus company in Florence and the surrounding areas, ATAF busses are orange in different sizes,  some run on natural gas and some run on electricity. 

BE AWARE of PICK POCKETERS and SHOPLIFTERS on all Busses looking for distracted tourists: do not leave your bag open at any time and keep an eye and hand on it!

HOW TO TAKE A BUS

Here below the few essentials steps to use Busses in Florence: 

- You need to know where you want to go:  get yourself a good MAP (the Tourist Info Center outside the Train Station hands them for free) and find the Italian name of the destination (Museum or street/square name)

- BUY TICKETS before you board at Newspaper Stands, Tobacco shops (with a Blue T sign outside), Bars displaying an orange ATAF sticker on the door or window and Ataf ticket booths (the main in Piazza Stazione outside the Railway Station, they will also provide maps of Bus routes and info) The word ‘ticket’ is understood almost by everybody. 1 Journey ticket is 1,20 Euro and it is valid 90 minutes (you can hop on and off other busses for the duration of 90 minutes) - there are many ticket options for tourists, check those below. 

- Make sure you write down or remember the BUS NUMBER that stops near your accommodation to be able to identify a return bus.

- BUS STOP SIGN: it reports the bus number and the various stop names of the route. Check for your destination name or the surrounding street to your destination(many areas are just pedestrian). In case you have access to internet you can check your routes HERE, or you can just ask around better with a map. You may find a lot of other tourists too, so make sure you identify residents.

- WHEN THE BUS ARRIVES: entrances are front or rear doors, the center door is ONLY for exiting. Immediately VALIDATE your ticket at the machines, you must stamp the ticket when boarding (even if no one else seems to - you don't want to get caught without a validated ticket - the fine is quite costly). The print on your ticket will report date and time, so you will know when the validation will expire. Controllers are continuously getting on busses and checking tickets. The fine is over 50 Euros to be paid on the spot or within 5 days of getting the fine payable at the ATAF office at the SMN train station.

- To RECOGNIZE YOUR STOP, try to ask first passengers otherwise the driver can help you, they are very used to tourists. In case you exit earlier or later than your intended  stop, you can just walk : you will notice that stops are not far apart one from the other.

BUS TICKETS 

The ticket must be validated at the beginning of the journey(90Minutes) and this operation needs only be done once(within 90 minutes you can change as many busses you need). The passenger is responsible for seeing that the validation has been done correctly. In the case of the machine not working, the customer is responsible for checking all the other such machines aboard, if any. Should all machines be out of order, the driver must be informed.