⛔ The ZTL, which is the expensive one to get wrong
Florence's historic centre is a ZTL — zona a traffico limitato — a restricted zone enforced by cameras at every entrance. If you drive in without authorisation you are fined, and ⛔ each gate you pass is a separate fine. Drive in and back out and you can trigger several from one trip.
⚠️ They arrive by post, months later, often after you are home. In a hire car the rental company passes each one on and adds an administration fee on top.
⭐ The rules: do not drive into the centre. Collect and return hire cars from outside it. If your hotel is inside the zone, give them your registration in advance so they can register it — and confirm they have actually done it.
The zone also has different sectors with different hours, which is how people who thought they had checked still get caught.
Airports and trains
Florence (FLR) is small and very close to the city, with a tram to the centre. It is convenient and it has limited routes.
Pisa (PSA) carries far more flights and is about an hour away by train, with a connection from Pisa Centrale to the airport. Bologna (BLQ) is the other realistic option, also roughly an hour by train.
Santa Maria Novella is the main station and is a few minutes' walk from the cathedral. Fast trains reach Rome, Milan, Bologna and Venice; regional trains do the day trips.
Getting around, which is mostly not a problem
⭐ Walk. The old centre is about a kilometre across and there is no metro. Nearly every distance on this site is given as a walking time from the cathedral because that is the only measure that is useful here.
There are buses and a tram, which matter for the airport, for Fiesole and for the hills, and hardly at all inside the centre.
⚠️ The streets are stone, frequently uneven, and the hills are real. Footwear is the single most consequential packing decision for this city.
Booking the practical bits
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Florence is walked, not driven — the centre is a restricted-traffic zone and a hire car is a liability inside it. What is worth arranging is the arrival: Peretola is close, Pisa is the cheap flights, and a data plan that works before you are looking for the bus.
Ponte Vecchio
Santa Maria Novella
Mercato Centrale