The big Tour de France caravan is coming to town (and throughout the metropolitan area) and for a few days Florence will have to live with parking and circulation bans, along the entire route of the two events, Thursday 27 Junethe presentation of the teams e Saturday 29 Junethe departure of the first stage Florence-Rimini.
Barriers and signs have been prepared and set up for days and now we are here. It begins with the passage of the teams from Palazzo Vecchio to Piazzale Michelangelo, for the official presentation from 6pm to 8pm on Thursday, but – be careful – parking bans will come into effect earlier.
From 8pm today, June 26th, until 9pm on June 27th a parking ban is triggered along the entire route involved in the event, followed by a transit ban from 2pm until 5pm on 27 June.
To facilitate access for enthusiasts to Piazzale Michelangelo — Viale Michelangelo will be closed to traffic, together with Viale Galileo from 2pm to 9pm on June 27th — the «Shuttle Bartali» service organized by Autolinee Toscane will be available from 4pm to 9pm, free of charge with departure and arrival frequency every 10 minutes.
The terminus of the service will be located in Piazza Vittorio Veneto and Viale Michelangelo. Also on Thursday, from 2pm to 9pm, all the roads that cross those closed to traffic become backgroundless, that is, you will not be able to cross the route, but in two-way traffic so that you can enter and exit the same streets. The Civil Protection of the Municipality of Florence has already distributed leaflets with information regarding road closures, parking bans, and U-turns, in all the places affected.
Other parking and traffic bans will come into effect for the event on the 29th, the first time the Tour de France starts from Italy. The caravan will leave from the Villaggio alle Cascine (an area equipped for teams awaiting departure), around midday, for a non-competitive transfer to Piazza della Signoria, where it will stop for the institutional start.
Then always pedaling non-competitively, the cyclists will pass through Ponte Vecchio, via Guicciardini, piazza dei Pitti, via Romana, piazzale di Porta Romana, to continue on viale dei Colli up to the piazzale and from there go down to via Salutati, and go along viale Giannotti, viale Europa, viale del Pian di Ripoli, for the departure at Viola Park.
Also in this case, to allow the athletes to pass, there are no parking restrictions along the route will come into force from 8pm on Friday 28 June until 2pm on Saturday 29th and transit bans from 9am on Saturday 29 June until 2pm, period during which it will be impossible to cross the route and therefore with many roads becoming backgroundless.
Saturday afternoon away with barriers and bans and everything will return to normal. With only many yellow shirts around, in memory of a historical event.
