Don’t let it muddle you... Surviving Florence: the basics
House numbers in Florence
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Maddalena Delli]
Addresses in Italy are fairly straightforward: the street name is followed by the street number. However, you might see an address with a number plus "bis" or "A". For instance, "Via Cavour 11/bis," which would be the next door or entrance down from "Via Cavour 11", or "Via Garibaldi 6/A," which would be next door to "Via Garibaldi 6". In Florence, however, addresses can be rather confusing, because there is a double standard of street numbering: black and red. Traditionally, the black numbers were meant for residences, while red numbers marked commercial premises such as shops or other businesses. The plates of the latter are also painted in red, and in writing their address numbers are followed by the letter "r" (short for "rosso"). Check our list of restaurants on page 24, and you will find that indeed most of their addresses have an "r" next to their street number... You should be very careful because the two sets of numbers do not necessarily go together, and for instance a 35/r (red) will not necessarily be anywhere near the ordinary (black) 35 or even the 33/r (red)...
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Don’t let it muddle you... Surviving Florence: the basics