Florence

Is Florence safe?

Florence is safe for visitors in the sense that matters most: violent crime is rare. Florence province recorded 6 homicides in 2023, about 0.6 per 100,000 people, according to Eurostat. But if you visit, there is a real chance someone will try to pick your pocket. In 2024 the police received 11,051 pickpocketing reports in the province, up 48% in a year and the most in any Italian province per head. Most victims are tourists in a centre you can cross on foot in twenty minutes.

We score Florence 73, level with Rome. It does about as well as Rome on violence and better on the roads and at night, but worse on theft, air and flood risk.

Italy's pickpocket capital

The Il Sole 24 Ore crime index, based on Interior Ministry data, ranks Florence second in Italy for reported crime per head, after Milan, with 6,508 reports per 100,000 residents in 2024. Reported crime rose 7.4% that year, to its highest level since 2007. Florence is first in the country for both pickpocketing and snatch thefts per head.

The numbers are high partly because a city of about 360,000 people receives millions of visitors, who report thefts so they can claim on insurance or replace a passport. The risk is concentrated in a few places:

• Santa Maria Novella station, its platforms, ticket machines and the streets to the centre.
• The T1 and T2 trams, including the airport line, when carriages are packed.
• The Duomo and the Baptistery, especially the queues for the dome climb.
• The Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi, where crowds pack the bridge and the museum queues.
• San Lorenzo market and the stalls around it.

Teams often work in pairs: one asks for directions, holds out a petition or "drops" something, the other lifts a phone. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary also warns about spiked drinks followed by robbery in nightlife areas.

Overtourism and its rules

Florence's centre is crowded for most of the year, and the city has added rules to manage it. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary notes that fines apply for sitting on monument steps, eating next to churches and monuments, buying from unlicensed street sellers and paddling in fountains. Fines are real but are about behaviour, not safety. The one that catches drivers is the ZTL, the camera-enforced traffic zone in the centre: rental cars that cross it receive fines by post.

Where Florence feels uneasy at night

The centre is lively and generally safe until late, from Piazza della Signoria to Santo Spirito across the river. The prefect has kept "red zones" around Santa Maria Novella station, Via Palazzuolo and the Cascine park since October 2024, where police can order people with criminal records for violence, theft or drug offences to leave. By May 2026 officers had checked 39,399 people and issued 394 orders, according to La Nazione. These are the areas where drug dealing and fights happen; walk along the main streets or take a taxi.

The European Commission's 2023 survey of how safe residents feel at night did not include Florence. In Bologna, the nearest city it covered, 53% said they feel safe walking alone at night in the city and 59% in their own neighbourhood, against 38% in Rome. Gallup puts Italy as a whole at 60%, and women at 44%.

Heat, air and the Arno

Summer is the biggest health risk for many visitors. July and August now bring regular days of 35 to 40°C in a valley that traps heat, and the stone streets stay hot into the night. Air quality is mediocre: ARPAT measured annual PM2.5PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary of 11 µg/m³ at its background station and 14 at a busy traffic station in 2024, above the WHO guideline of 5. Tap water is safe, and the city has free public water points (fontanelli) for refills.

Florence sits in the Arno floodplain. The 1966 flood killed dozens of people in the city and its province and submerged the centre, and heavy autumn rain still triggers flood alerts that close riverside paths and some underpasses. Follow the city's civil protection alerts if you visit in October or November.

Crossing the road

Florence province recorded 54 road deaths in 2024, about 5.5 per 100,000 residents, the most of any province in Tuscany, though many of these happen outside the city. In the centre, the danger is closer to home: narrow streets with no pavement, scooters weaving through crowds and bikes coming the wrong way. Step off the kerb only after checking both directions, and keep children close in streets such as Via del Proconsolo and Borgo San Lorenzo.

How to stay safe in Florence

• Carry one card and a copy of your passport, and leave the rest in the hotel safe.
• Wear a bag in front in queues, on the tram and on the Ponte Vecchio.
• Use white licensed taxis from ranks or a booked radio taxi, not drivers who approach you.
• In summer, sightsee before 11am and after 5pm, and refill water at the fontanelli.

How we scored it

Violent crime (90) is Florence's strongest factor. Theft and scams (55) is the weakest, reflecting the highest pickpocketing rate per head in Italy. Natural hazards (72) and health and environment (78) are lower than for most European cities because of the Arno flood risk, summer heat and air above the WHO guideline. Walking at night (66) uses Bologna's answer to the EU's 2023 survey, which we use for every European city, because Florence was not surveyed.