|
|
Florence Addresses
The numbering of the streets functions in relation to the river. If the street or square is parallel to the river, numbers begin from the east and proceed towards the west. If the street is perpendicular to the river, the numbering begins from the end nearest the river bank. Odd numbers are on the left side of the street, even on the right.
However, beware the Florence's numbering system; Florence's address system has a split personality. Private homes, some offices, and hotels are numbered in black (or blue), while businesses, shops, and restaurants are numbered independently in red. This means that 1, 2, 3 (black) addresses march up the block numerically oblivious to their 1r, 2r, 3r (red) neighbors. You might find the doorways on one side of a street numbered: 1r, 2r, 3r, 1, 4r, 2, 3, 5r . . .
Florence keeps proclaiming that it's busily renumbering the whole city without the color system (plain 1, 3, 5 on one side, 2, 4, 6 on the other) and will release the new standard soon, but no one is quite sure when. Conservative Florentines who don't want their addresses to change have been helping to hold up the process. This is all compounded by the fact that the color codes occur only in the centro storico and other older sections of town; outlying districts didn't bother with the codes and use the international standard system common in the United States.
|
|
|
|
|
