The 8 best travel-insurance options for Florence in 2026

Florence is a walking city, and that shapes the risks a policy has to cover. The climb inside Brunelleschi's dome runs 463 steps up narrow, uneven stairwells, and the descent is where tired legs slip. The centro storico is paved in worn pietra serena slabs that turn slippery after rain, especially across Piazza della Signoria and along the Lungarno. July and August afternoons in Florence often pass 35°C, so heat exhaustion in the Uffizi queue is a real claim, if not a glamorous one. Theft is the other common one. Santa Maria Novella station, the crowds on the Ponte Vecchio and the buses up to Piazzale Michelangelo are where pickpockets tend to work. Check your policy's per-item limit for phones and cameras, because many policies cap electronics well below what a new phone costs.

The ranking weighs three factors, scored from each insurer's published policy wording. Claim handling counts most when you're dealing with Italian hospital paperwork, and since no insurer publishes response times in a comparable way, we scored whether each one runs a 24-hour assistance line that can guarantee payment to a hospital, rather than leaving you to pay and claim later. Ospedale di Careggi and Santa Maria Nuova both treat emergencies whatever your insurance, but a payment guarantee saves you the upfront bill. Price was compared on matching quotes, since premiums vary by age and trip length. Policy exclusions took the heaviest deductions. Several providers treat Vespa rental injuries under motorized-vehicle exclusions, which matters in a city where scooter rental shops line Via dei Servi and plenty of visitors ride south into the Chianti hills for a day. Pre-existing-condition restrictions and medical limits below EUR 100,000 also pulled scores down.

The EUR 30,000 minimum applies to travelers who need a Schengen visa, citizens of India, China and South Africa among them. When you apply, the Italian consulate checks your insurance certificate, and the policy must cover both medical treatment and repatriation for the full length of your stay. US, UK, Canadian and Australian passport holders can stay up to 90 days in any 180 without a visa and face no insurance requirement at Firenze-Peretola. Being exempt does not make you covered, though. US Medicare generally does not pay for care in Italy, and an air ambulance home can cost tens of thousands of euros. Many credit-card travel benefits set lower medical limits or leave out repatriation altogether, so read the card's benefits guide before relying on it, particularly if you are using it toward a visa application. An EHIC or GHIC card covers public-hospital treatment at local rates, but it does not satisfy the Schengen visa requirement, and it will not pay for repatriation or private-hospital fees.

In Florence, call 118 for an ambulance or 112 for any emergency. Santa Maria Nuova, founded in 1288 by Folco Portinari, the father of Dante's Beatrice, still runs a Pronto Soccorso a five-minute walk east of the Duomo, while Careggi, in the north of the city, handles major trauma and specialist cases. Italian emergency rooms triage by urgency, so a sprained wrist at Santa Maria Nuova can mean a wait of several hours. Save your policy number and your insurer's assistance line on your phone before you land at Peretola, and call the insurer before treatment where you can, since some policies require the assistance line to authorise before they will make direct payment. For minor problems, try the Farmacia Comunale inside Santa Maria Novella station first: it keeps long hours and its pharmacists can usually help in English.