Florence
Tuscan city with a UNESCO historic centre; pioneered a full STR ban in its centre since May 2025.
The nine-zone freeze on new tourist lets in Florence stays in force after a Tuscan Administrative Court refused on 25 September 2026 to suspend it. No date is set for the full hearing, so the curbs stand untested on the merits.
Last refreshed: 3 October 2026 · Appears in 2 active topics
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Florence (Firenze) is the capital of Tuscany and a birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, home to the Uffizi Gallery, the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio and Palazzo Vecchio. Its historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982. The city has about 360,000 residents and receives around 15 million tourists a year, one of the highest visitor-to-resident ratios of any major European city. Tourism, fashion, leather goods and Heritage anchor its economy.
That ratio drives its housing policy. Residents of the historic core fell from more than 100,000 in the 1970s to fewer than 40,000, and since May 2025 Florence has barred new short-let licences in its UNESCO-listed centre. The city also requires hosts to identify guests, which rules out unattended key-box check-in. Italy's national rules moved the same way: Italian listings have needed a national code since January 2025, and by 20 May 2026 rental income was taxed at 21% for a first property and 26% beyond it, with Milan banning key boxes.
Florence has become Italy's test case for whether historic-centre curbs survive legal and market pressure.
Florence's freeze survives a second challenge
Florence has now won both court rounds over its short-let rules in 2026. On 25 September the regional Administrative Court declined to pause the city's ban on new tourist lets in nine zones, because the operators challenging it had set out their harm only in very general terms.
The earlier round, on 30 June, concerned how hosts check guests in. The same court upheld the city's guest-identification rule against rental operator Valerix srl: a video call with sight of the guest's documents is enough, but a key box or smart lock with no visual contact is not. For the city council, the two rulings mean its supply freeze and its check-in rule both stand while the merits wait. With no hearing date fixed, landlords WHO hoped for a quick reopening of licences face another season under the freeze.