A quarter to noon. Lungarno Pecori Giraldi. Caravans of foreigners they proceed on foot towards Santa Croce, after having been unloaded from the buses at the tourist coach stalls. 150 meters of parking is not enough: it goes beyond the city bus pole. Then the double rows begin. Practically continuous. On the contrary. The maneuvers to park the buses often spill over into the third, sometimes even the fourth in a row, blocking traffic arriving from Viale Giovine Italia. Always the same story, a problem, despite the announcements, never solved.
One hour, the assault
THE coach they should stop for a maximum of 10 minutes – there is remote control on the vehicles – but instead they have to deal with the delays of the groups, ready to be picked up after the usual hit and run in the centre. Air conditioning certainly wouldn’t be needed, but the vehicles’ engines almost all remain running. The assault lasts an houruntil twelve forty-five.
Then the truce, which leaves the results of the continuous passage of heavy vehicles in plain sight. The asphalt is sunken in several places. Crumbled pieces of bitumen from a patched compartment break away from a crater.
The parking lot in Viale Guidoni
We move to exchanger parking in Viale Guidoni. Around 1.15 pm, out of twenty available stalls there are just three buses. Here in 2019 the Municipality decided to discount the tickets for those who refused to enter the centre: 100 euros, instead of the standard daily tickets of between 300 and 600 euros per day, based on the “Euro category” of the vehicle. The project, in fact, does not seem to have taken off yet. This is confirmed by a sleepy driver, who waits with his head resting on the steering wheel: “Here in Guidoni we only stop for groups who have hotels in the Peretola and Novoli area.” Villa Costanza works better, says another driver: “It can be accessed directly from the motorway, without entering the city, and you only pay for the parking.”
At the stadium
In the square of the Franchi stadium — there are over 40 buses waiting to pick up tourists on Lungarno Pecori Giraldi in the afternoon — other colleagues disagree: «Guidoni would be convenient». The point is that travel agencies continue to prefer access to the centre: «We work a lot with cruises from Livorno, La Spezia and Carrara – explain two drivers – At least 20 60-seater coaches are needed for each ship. The passengers are often elderly or Americans who are not particularly fit, so much so that the buses are never fully loaded because some would not physically fit. In short, they are not people who can take trams or make long journeys on foot.”
What drivers would like
The drivers would actually prefer here are the Guidoni and Villa Costanza options: «You avoid the chaos of traffic, the anxiety of the time recorded by the microchip on the vehicle, the stress of taking or picking up tourists in narrow spaces or on the Arno. But it doesn’t depend on us…”. Campo di Marte is the car park preferred by drivers: «You are one step away from the Lungarno and it is well served. When there are matches we go to Rai where there are only 25 seats. A political choice would be needed: the obligation to stop at exchangers, as in other European cities.”
What Palazzo Vecchio says
The latest data from Palazzo Vecchio on buses they date back to 2022. The authorizations granted – excluding the “pirate buses” – were 22,895, or almost 63 per day on average. If we consider that in 2022, until the Easter weekend which fell in mid-April, tourism was absent, and that in any case it drops significantly after All Saints’ Day, it means that the bulk of the flows were concentrated in just over 6 months. It means, by hand, that in high season in Florence there is an army of over 10 thousand hit-and-run tourists who frequent the same few streets, gathered in small phalanxes that occupy the very narrow Borgo dei Greci or Via della Ninna. And if the buses that park in Peretola instead of Lungarno Pecori Giraldi are counted, those that instead stop at the Villa Costanza exchange (without any ticket, and with only the cost of parking) are not included in the Palazzo Vecchio numbers. However, it is the Florentines who notice this as they wait for the tramway and are often forced to wait for the next ride, because the carriages are packed with tourists.
){kind=link}