Short rentals: restrictions on keyboxes and golf cars in Florence. The Municipality's moves against overtourism

On the eve of the "first historic G7 tourism meeting" wanted by the Daniela Santanchè minister in Florence, Tuscany's capital city deploys measures against the effects of the excess of visitors: a ten-point 'Plan for sustainable tourism', which among other things envisages a ban on the use of keyboxes (the boxes used by owners of flats for short-term rent to leave keys for guests) in the UNESCO area of the historic centre, limits on so-called atypical vehicles (the 'golf cars') and a ban on the use of amplifiers and loudspeakers by tourist guides. For some time Palazzo Vecchio has been pushing for the adoption of limits on short-term tourist rental activities: an intervention desired by the former mayor Dario Nardella, confirmed by the current first citizen Sara Funaro and against which several appeals have been filed and are now being examined by the Tar.

The mayor Funaro explained: 'We are putting a retroactive stop to the use of keyboxes on the outside facades of buildings' in the Unesco area, because 'just take a walk around the historical centre, look at the historical buildings and see the amount of keyboxes there are'. For keyboxes on the outside of buildings (usually red), it was explained, the Unesco regulations would have to be amended - the yeses of the Tuscan Region and the Superintendency are needed - and so the measure would be in force from 2025.

Other measures include common criteria for displaying the national identification code outside short-term tourist rental activities, defined with the Superintendency; implementation of controls on tourist services also through IT tools such as the Ia, with real alert systems if there are irregularities; communication campaigns on sustainable tourism; collaboration with the main Ota platforms for the dissemination of campaigns 'on respect for the city'; a permanent working table with public and private stakeholders; a steering committee for the planning of tourism policies; the implementation of the tourism dashboard where all data on tourism in Florence is brought together.