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Don’t get muddled... it's easy when you know how

House numbers in Florence
[Jane Whittle]

Addresses in Italy are fairly straightforward because the name of the street name is immediately followed by the number of the house or shop. However, you may come across addresses that also have a “bis” or an “A” tacked on to the number. Via Cavour 11/bis, for example, would be situated next door or one or entrance down from Via Cavour 11, while Via Garibaldi 6/A, would stand right next door to Via Garibaldi 6.

Florence, however, goes one step further, and many addresses here can appear to be rather confusing, because it uses a double method for house numbering. Some in fact are black while others are red!

This is not as mysterious as it may seem. The black numbers are traditionally used for houses and the red numbers mark commercial premises like shops or other businesses. Therefore shop number plates are painted red and their addresses are written with the numbers followed by the letter “r” (short for “rosso” or red).

Check the addresses of the restaurants published in this issue, and you will see that most of the addresses are followed by an “r” next to the business number...

Take care when looking for an address as the two sets of numbers are not necessarily near each other - a 35/r (red) number can be quite a long way away from the ordinary (black) 35 house number, or even number 33/r (red)...

You'll soon get used to the system but we feel it needs to be explained as many people get confused over this when they first arrive and can't understand why the numbers they find do not correspond to the place they are looking for!



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