Last verified: October 4, 2026. I read every price, rule and fare below on the source I link, and measured every walking time on an OpenStreetMap route. The area prices come from the June 26, 2026 Inside Airbnb snapshot of Florence. I re-check the rules and prices every month and re-run the area prices when a new snapshot comes out.
Where to stay in Florence is a smaller decision than the lists make it look. I priced nine central areas, and the dearest and the cheapest were €48 a night apart: a median whole flat cost €216 by the Duomo and €168 in Sant’Ambrogio in June 2026. No landmark I measured, the station included, is more than 31 minutes on foot from any of them.
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So the usual trade, central against cheap, barely exists here. What changes from one area to the next is the noise at midnight, the walk from the station with a bag, and whether the airport tram stops near your door.
This guide compares the nine on price, walking time, arrival and the rules. For what to do once you’re there, see my Florence travel guide. For other cities and other kinds of stay, from convents to farm stays, see my guide to where to stay in Italy.
Key Takeaways
- Nine central areas sit within €48 of each other: €168 to €216 a night for a median whole flat in June 2026 (Inside Airbnb).
- For a first visit I’d pick San Marco; for a second, Santo Spirito.
- The airport tram costs €2 and ends at San Marco.
- Most stays add €6 per person per night in city tax.
Table of Contents
Where to Stay in Florence: The Short Answer
San Marco for a first visit, the Duomo and Signoria core if you’ll pay about €30 more to be in the middle, and Santo Spirito for a second trip. Sant’Ambrogio is the cheapest central pick, and Santa Maria Novella suits an early train. In June 2026 the median whole flat across Florence cost €174 a night (Inside Airbnb, Florence, June 26, 2026 snapshot).
The table puts all nine side by side, priciest first. The prices are the median advertised nightly rate for a whole flat within 350 metres of each area’s centre, on listings with a review in the past year. They’re a fair guide to how areas compare, not a quote for your dates.
| Area | Best for | Walk to Duomo / Uffizi / station | Airport tram | Median whole flat, Jun 2026 | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duomo and Signoria (the core) | Being in the middle of it | 0 to 6 / 1 to 8 / 12 to 17 min | A walk from Unità, by the station | €212 to €216 | The priciest streets, crowded by day |
| Santa Maria Novella | Trains, an early start | 10 / 15 / 3 min | Alamanni and Unità stops | €194 | Pick your street near the station |
| San Lorenzo | The market, the tram | 9 / 15 / 8 min | Unità stop | €187 | Market stalls and day crowds |
| San Marco | A first visit, quiet nights | 11 / 17 / 16 min | San Marco, the last stop | €183 | Fewer places to eat late |
| Santa Croce | Evenings out | 12 / 9 / 24 min | Taxi | €181 | Late noise on some streets |
| Santo Spirito | A second visit | 16 / 11 / 19 min | Walk or taxi | €174 | Across the river from the Accademia |
| San Niccolò | Quiet, the view | 22 / 15 / 31 min | Taxi | €171 | The longest walk with luggage |
| San Frediano | Workshops, local bars | 18 / 15 / 18 min | Walk or taxi | €170 | 24 minutes from the Accademia |
| Sant’Ambrogio | The lowest central price, the food market | 15 / 17 / 27 min | Taxi | €168 | Named in 2026 noise complaints |
Walking times are OpenStreetMap routes from each area’s centre point, measured October 4. The core row covers two circles, one on the Duomo and one on Piazza della Signoria. Two areas sit outside the nine, Campo di Marte and Novoli, and I cover them further down.
Why San Marco? It’s three minutes from the Accademia and eleven from the Duomo, the airport tram ends in its square, and it’s quiet after dinner. Its median flat cost €183, about €30 below the Duomo’s. The Duomo itself is a fine choice too. You just pay more to sleep above the crowds you’ll walk through all day.
How Much Does Each Area of Florence Cost?
In June 2026, median whole-flat prices ran from €168 a night in Sant’Ambrogio to €216 by the Duomo. The Centro Storico district as a whole came in at €185, against €143 in the rest of the city (Inside Airbnb, Florence, June 26, 2026). Inside the centre, the street matters less than you’d think.
Look at how the bars overlap. A flat at the cheap end of the Duomo range costs less than a mid-range one in Santo Spirito. In Rome the same exercise gave me a spread of €168 between areas, from €116 to €284. In Florence it’s €48. My where to stay in Rome guide has that comparison.
A few cautions on the numbers. These are advertised prices in one snapshot. They aren’t what guests paid, and they aren’t hotel rates. Each area is a 350-metre circle around a point I chose, not an official boundary. And a June snapshot shows summer pricing.
What do hotels cost? In the second quarter of 2026, the average Florence hotel room sold for €238.04 a night, second only to Venice among Italian cities, with 79.8% of rooms filled (QuiFinanza, on Trademark Italia’s Italian Hotel Monitor, August 2026). Across all of 2025 the average was €204.86 (Federturismo, Italian Hotel Monitor 2025). That spring quarter was €33 above the 2025 average. The month you pick can matter as much as the street.
At the budget end, Plus Florence, a big hostel north of San Lorenzo, listed twin rooms from €59 and doubles from €100 on its own site when I checked on October 4. Those are rolling “from” rates, so treat them as a floor. Convent guest houses are the other budget route, though none of the four Florence ones I checked publishes its prices. My guide to where to stay in Italy explains how convent stays work.
Two kinds of week push every price up. Pitti Uomo, the menswear fair, fills the city on January 12 to 15 and June 15 to 18, 2027 (Pitti Immagine). The Firenze Marathon runs on November 29, 2026 (Firenze Marathon). If your dates are loose, my month-by-month guide to when to visit shows when prices drop, and my Italy trip cost guide puts the room into a whole-trip budget.
Historic Centre or Oltrarno: Which Side of the River?
The north bank for a short first visit, the Oltrarno for a second trip or a longer stay. In June 2026 the median whole flat cost about €175 south of the river and €187 north of it, within the Centro Storico district (Inside Airbnb, Florence). That’s about €12 a night, so choose on how you want your evenings to go.
The Oltrarno just means “beyond the Arno”: the south bank, inside the old walls. It holds about 2,160 of the centre’s 9,903 listings, or 22%. I drew a straight line along the river to split them, so read that as “about”.
On the north bank, the Duomo and Signoria circles are the densest on my map, with 1,330 and 1,456 listings inside 350 metres. That’s what “touristy” looks like as a number. Step ten minutes north and it thins out. San Marco’s circle holds 636.
San Lorenzo sits between the Duomo and San Marco. It’s eight minutes from the station and the Accademia, and the upstairs food hall at the Mercato Centrale opens daily from 9:00 to 23:00 (Mercato Centrale Firenze). The leather stalls outside bring crowds by day.
The Oltrarno is really three places. Santo Spirito is the square people mean when they say Oltrarno. It’s five minutes from Palazzo Pitti and eleven from the Uffizi, at a median of €174.
San Frediano, to the west, has the workshops and the bars locals use. It’s 24 minutes from the Accademia and 11 from Pitti. San Niccolò, to the east, is the smallest, with 185 listings under the hill of Piazzale Michelangelo. It’s 28 minutes from the Accademia and 31 from the station, the two longest walks in the grid.
That 31 is the only cell in the grid at 30 minutes or more. Nowhere in central Florence is far on foot. But notice the station column. That’s the walk you’ll do with luggage, twice, over uneven stone. From the station, Santa Croce is 24 minutes, Sant’Ambrogio 27 and San Niccolò 31. I’d take a taxi for those.
One more thing the map hides: stairs. Many flats in these old buildings are third-floor walk-ups with no lift. Ask the host which floor and whether there’s a lift before you book. Once the room is settled, my guide to Uffizi and Accademia tickets covers the two bookings that sell out first.
Santa Croce or Sant’Ambrogio: Good Value, or Just Loud?
Both are good bases if your bedroom faces the back. In June 2026 Sant’Ambrogio had the lowest median of the nine areas, €168 a night, and Santa Croce came in at €181, nine minutes from the Uffizi (Inside Airbnb, Florence). They’re also the streets where Florentines go out, and that’s the trade.
Residents here have been complaining about late-night noise since the spring. In April 2026 the local paper named Sant’Ambrogio, Santa Croce and San Pierino as the trouble spots (La Nazione, “Movida e rumore”, April 2026). In July it mapped the complaints street by street: Via Fiesolana, Via Verdi, Borgo La Croce, Via di Mezzo and the riverside Lungarni (La Nazione, “La mappa del rumore”, July 2026).
The city is fining for it. By April 2026 its patrols had four sound meters and had issued about €10,000 in fines in three months (La Nazione, April 2026). So the noise is on the record, and it hasn’t stopped.
What do you get for it? Sant’Ambrogio’s food market runs Monday to Saturday from 7:00 to 14:00, closed Sundays (Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio). The restaurants around it and around Piazza Santa Croce are where I’d eat most nights anyway.
Three questions sort a good flat from a bad night here. Which street does the bedroom face? Which floor is it on? Are the windows double-glazed? A host who answers all three quickly is usually a host who’s been asked before.
Is It Safe to Stay Near Santa Maria Novella Station?
Yes, if you pick the street. The area around Santa Maria Novella is three minutes from the trains and the tram, and its median flat cost €194 in June 2026. It’s also one of Florence’s reinforced-policing zones, which the Prefect extended for five more months on October 2, 2026 (ANSA, zone rosse extension, October 2026).
A “red zone” is an area where police can order people with a record for certain offences to leave. Since October 2024 they’ve checked 55,942 people and issued 427 removal orders, according to the same ANSA report. The zones confirmed in May 2026 were the station, Via Palazzuolo, the Cascine park, the stadium area and Novoli (ANSA, May 2026). In practice it means more police on those streets.
The real risk is your pocket. In 2024 the Florence province logged 11,051 reports of pickpocketing, up 48% in a year and the highest in a series that starts in 2006. Milan, Rome and Florence were the top three provinces for reported crime per resident (Il Sole 24 Ore, Indice della Criminalità 2025). Stations are where visitors stand still with bags.
So book by street. The side toward Piazza Santa Maria Novella and Via della Scala is ordinary city, with good small hotels. Via Palazzuolo is the street named in the order. I’d skip it at night, along with the station underpass.
The upside is the trains. Italo’s fast trains reach Rome in 1h25 (Italo, Florence to Rome). If you’re leaving at 7:00, a three-minute walk is worth a lot. My guide to getting around Italy covers the trains. For theft, see my honest look at safety in Italy and the station scams to know.
Should You Stay Outside the Centre?
Only with a car or a tight budget. In June 2026 the median whole flat outside the Centro Storico district cost €143 a night, about €40 less than inside it (Inside Airbnb, Florence). You pay some of that back in time: Campo di Marte is 33 minutes on foot from the Duomo, and Novoli is 55.
Almost three in four Florence listings are in the centre, so the choice outside is thin. Two areas are worth knowing.
Campo di Marte, east of the centre by the stadium, had a district median of €144. It’s the pick if you’re driving on into Tuscany, because it sits outside the camera-enforced traffic zone that covers the old centre. The stadium area is one of the policing zones above.
Novoli, to the north-west, is on the T2 tram between the airport and the station. The wider Rifredi district had a median of €140. It’s practical and plain, and it’s also one of those policing zones.
Fiesole, the hill town above the city, is lovely for a night with a view and a poor base for museums. You’d ride a bus down and back each day.
If Florence’s prices are the problem, the better saving is a different city. Bologna is about 40 minutes away by fast train and usually cheaper, as I explain in my guide to underrated cities in Italy. And if the car is for the countryside, my Tuscany itinerary starts where Florence ends.
What Does Florence’s City Tax Add, and How Do You Get In?
Florence charges €6 per person per night for flats, B&Bs and three-star hotels, €7 at four stars and €8 at five, for up to seven nights in a row. Children under 12 don’t pay (Comune di Firenze, imposta di soggiorno, rates in force since February 1, 2025). Two adults in a flat for three nights pay €36.
| Where you stay | Per person, per night |
|---|---|
| Hotel, 1 star | €3.50 |
| Hotel, 2 stars | €4.50 |
| Hotel, 3 stars | €6 |
| Hotel, 4 stars | €7 |
| Hotel, 5 stars | €8 |
| B&B, guest house, holiday flat, short-term rental | €6 |
| Historic residence (residenza d’epoca) | €7 |
| Hostel, convent guest house (casa per ferie) | €4 |
| Campsite | €3.50 |
| Agriturismo | €3.50 to €8, by grade |
The table comes from the city’s own rate resolution, number 535 of December 10, 2024. Nothing went up in 2026. On Airbnb the tax is charged when you book, as the same city page explains. Elsewhere you pay the property. For how this compares with Rome, Venice and Milan, see my Italy tourist tax guide.
Getting in is cheap. The T2 tram runs from the airport to the station and on to Piazza San Marco, 8.8 km and 20 stops in about 35 minutes end to end (Firenze Tramvia, Linea T2). A ticket has cost €2 since August 1, 2026, and it’s valid for 90 minutes (GEST, tickets). Trams start at 5:00 and run past midnight (GEST timetable).
The taxi is a fixed fare between the airport and the central area: €28 by day, €30 on public holidays and €32 at night, from 22:00 to 6:00, plus €1.20 per bag (Comune di Firenze, taxi tariffs). For two people with bags staying in Santa Croce or the Oltrarno, that’s money well spent.
If you’re driving, don’t drive into the centre. The limited traffic zone, the ZTL, is active Monday to Friday from 7:30 to 20:00 and Saturday from 7:30 to 16:00 (Servizi alla Strada, ZTL). In 2026 a summer night zone also ran on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 23:00 to 3:00, between April 2 and October 4. Expect it back next spring.
Hotels inside the zone can put your number plate on the city’s permitted list. Ask yours before you arrive, and get the answer in writing. Don’t assume a flat’s host can do the same. My guide to driving in Italy explains how the cameras and fines work.
What Should You Check Before You Book in Florence?
Six things, plus the floor and the lift I mentioned above: the flat’s CIN code, how check-in works, keyboxes, the limit on new rentals, the car, and the tax line. In June 2026, 98% of active whole flats in Florence showed a national CIN registration code in the listing (Inside Airbnb, Florence, my count). A flat without one is the odd one out.
| Check | The rule | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| CIN code | Every short-term rental needs one, shown in the listing | No code is a red flag in Florence |
| Check-in | Someone must see your face against your ID, in person or by live video | Agree your arrival time before you fly |
| Keyboxes | Banned on streets across Florence since February 2025; €400 fine for the owner | A code on a box by the door isn’t how check-in should work |
| New rentals | Almost no new tourist flats in the UNESCO centre, or in nine more areas since June 2026 | Supply is capped; existing flats keep operating |
| Cars | ZTL cameras fine unregistered plates while the zone is active | Ask the hotel to register your plate |
| City tax | €6 per person per night in a flat, up to 7 nights | Check whether it’s in the total or due on arrival |
People say listings are vanishing because the city has all but stopped adding them. New tourist lets in the UNESCO centre have been all but blocked since July 30, 2024, under a planning rule the city adopted that day (Comune di Firenze), and a full regulation followed in May 2025. It covers 35,593 homes. On June 4, 2026 the council extended it to nine more areas with another 67,780 homes, from Campo di Marte to Rifredi (Comune di Firenze; ANSA, June 2026).
Nothing you’ve booked disappears. Flats that were already let lawfully keep operating, and the city counted 16,906 registered tourist lets in its first-year review. In the first five months of 2026 it granted just eight new authorisations in the centre, the exceptions the 2025 regulation allows (Comune di Firenze, first-year results, May 2026).
The booking data fits that picture. In 2025, guests spent 7.42 million nights in platform rentals in the Florence province, up 4.1% on 2024. In the Rome province the same figure rose 18.8% (Eurostat, short-stay platform nights, 2025 data). I can’t prove the rules caused the gap, and these are province figures. The practical lesson holds either way: book a central flat when you book the Uffizi.
On keyboxes, Florence went further than most. Since February 25, 2025 they’ve been banned on streets citywide, and the owner faces a €400 fine (La Nazione, February 2025). A building may keep one keypad, but not for letting guests in. The ID check itself is national law. My guide to Italy Airbnb rules walks through all seven checks for any Italian rental.
Where to Stay in Florence: FAQ
What is the best area to stay in Florence for a first visit?
San Marco, or anywhere between it and the Duomo. It’s eleven minutes on foot from the cathedral and three from the Accademia, and the airport tram ends there. Its median whole flat cost €183 a night in June 2026 (Inside Airbnb), about €30 below the Duomo’s.
Is it better to stay in the historic centre or the Oltrarno?
The centre for a short first visit, the Oltrarno for a second. The price gap is small, about €12 a night on the median in June 2026 (Inside Airbnb). Santo Spirito is five minutes from Palazzo Pitti and eleven from the Uffizi, but 19 from the station and 23 from the Accademia.
Is it safe to stay near Santa Maria Novella station?
Yes, if you pick the street. The station and Via Palazzuolo are reinforced-policing zones, extended again on October 2, 2026 (ANSA). Pickpocketing is the real risk, with 11,051 reports in the province in 2024. Book on the piazza side and you’re three minutes from the trains.
How much is the city tax in Florence?
It’s €6 per person per night in flats, B&Bs and three-star hotels, €7 at four stars and €8 at five. Hostels and convent guest houses charge €4. The tax stops after seven nights in a row, and children under 12 don’t pay (Comune di Firenze, rates in force since February 2025).
Is Airbnb banned in Florence?
No. The city authorises almost no new tourist flats in the UNESCO centre and, since June 2026, in nine more areas. Licensed flats keep operating, and 98% of active whole-flat listings showed a CIN code in June 2026 (Inside Airbnb). Supply is capped, so book earlier than you used to.
The Bottom Line
Where to stay in Florence comes down to your evenings and your arrival, because the prices and the walks are close everywhere. Pick the area that suits how you’ll spend the hours after the museums shut, then check the rules before you pay.
- San Marco for a first visit: €183 median, three minutes to the Accademia, the tram at the door.
- The Duomo and Signoria if you’ll pay about €215 to be in the middle.
- Santo Spirito for a second trip, at €174.
- Sant’Ambrogio or Santa Croce for food and nights out, from €168, with a back bedroom.
- Santa Maria Novella for an early train, on the piazza side.
- Outside the centre only with a car: about €40 a night less, 33 minutes or more on foot.
- Check the CIN, your arrival time, the floor, and €6 a night in city tax.
Most visitors don’t stay long. Between January and October 2025 Florence recorded just over 4 million arrivals and 9.7 million nights, about 2.4 nights each (Città Metropolitana di Firenze, December 2025). Three is better, and my 10-day Italy itinerary shows how to fit them in. For the last stop, my where to stay in Venice guide compares seven areas the same way.
