Is the area around the train station and Santa Maria Novella a safe place for 5, 20 year old girls to stay in Florence? Are there any unsafe areas that you would want to steer away from in Florence? Thanks!

The general rule in most major cities, esp. Italy, is that the scruffiest sleaziest area is usually round the station - and this is also partially true in Florence.

The area isn't that bad - it's just not as nice as others. If I were you, at your age, I'd look into the Santa Croce area (grrovy, young) or San Marco (big student area).

All these areas are walking distance of the main sites - Florence isn't big.

To the first question, I would answer yes. Do you have a specific hotel in mind? I think you can get closer to the ain sights, and not really pay more or get less.

As for unsfe areas, I don't know of any - - but then, I never went looking for any!

Best wishes,

Rex

Hi db,

There are many inexpensive hotels and B&B's near the train station.

Some streets are better lit than others.

What's your budget?

Areas around train stations, and Santa Maria Novello is no exception, never seem to be as "nice" or as "upscale" as some people would prefer.

A recent poster here was cautioned to stay away from the area around the main Munich train station because it is "seedy" (there are some ethnic carry-outs and a sex shop nearby) and returned to report that the area seemed just "fine."

Five 20-year-old <b> young women </b> are going to be safe from most areas in Florence. The better question might be, &quot;Is Florence going to be safe from <b> them </b>?

It's not as if all five women are going to be joined at the hip. They undoubtedly want a place where each would feel perfectly comfortable walking back alone at 3 AM.

What 20 year old would feel comfortable in any foreign city walking alone at 3 am?? Or 40 year old?

I may be the minority here but I felt a bit uncomfortable each time we walked to/from the train station in Florence. We were there last year and stayed for 4 nights and used the trains to daytrip. The area wasn't horrible by any means, but I got a lot of unwanted attention (I was 25 at the time), even with my husband holding my hand, from the men that seem to hang around the area in front of the station and it made me uncomfortable. This is just speaking from my own personal exprience but I wouldn't stay near the train station. Florence is compact enough anyways that you can stay in many different areas and still be relatively close to the train station.

Tracy

Depends, violent crime isn't high but there is a greater chance of being pick-pocketed/conned/scammed, etc.

But yeah, dont walk around alone at 3am - anywhere in Florence. Stick to atleast groups of 2 that late at night!

I stayed only about a block over from the train station in Florence last summer and felt perfectly safe. It was my first solo trip to Europe but I had no problems and felt safe coming back to the hotel as late as midnight. I was never out later than that so don't know what the middle of the night would be like. I think the area is certainly as &quot;safe&quot; as anywhere else. Is it as &quot;upscale&quot;? Probably not, but it's certainly not seedy. There are some European cities where I wouldn't stay in the vicinity of the train station, but Florence isn't one of them. I might avoid the streets actually bordering the station itself as I think they are noisier, but not unsafe. In fact, there were a couple of fairly expensive hotels in the area.

We are thinking of staying at the &quot;Yellow Apartment&quot; on Via Alamanni, 35. any thoughts?