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Florence wants to ban short-term rentals

Florence wants to ban short-term rentals of apartments in its historic city center in the near future. This was announced by the new social democratic mayor of the central Italian city, Sara Funaro. 

The Social Democrat announced that the city council would deal with the concrete form of the new regulation at the next possible meeting. Previously, an administrative court in the Tuscany region had declared a complaint against corresponding plans by the city of 360,000 inhabitants to be inadmissible.

Florence, with its many museums, churches and monuments, is one of the cities in Italy that suffers particularly from mass tourism. In the city center in particular, which has been a World Heritage Site for decades, many tenants have been forced out of their apartments by tourists who only stay for a few days but pay a lot more money. On some days, it is almost impossible to get through the streets around the cathedral and the Uffizi Gallery.

Funaro was only elected mayor last month. She won a run-off election against the former director of the Uffizi Gallery, the German-Italian Eike Schmidt, who ran with the support of the right-wing parties in power in Rome.

A ban on short-term rentals has been under discussion in the Tuscan capital for some time. There is also talk of tax relief for owners who rent out their apartments for the usual periods. Florence's city center has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982.