Esmeralda's Road

My relationship with vehicle sharing began quite early in Italy. Actually, Salvatore taught me how to drive a manual car in an enjoy (hopefully they don’t read this – it was in 2017 anyway teehee!). At the time there were tons of companies coming out with vehicle sharing. At first it was mainly cars, bicycles soon followed (well before the controversial monopattini) and most recently, motorini (those little scooters, like Vespa). Since we didn’t own a car back then, my husband signed up for every single app as they came out. That was fun because we had what felt like a billion options on days we really didn’t feel like walking or biking in the very walkable and bikeable city that is Florence.  

It’s been interesting to witness the rise and fall of car sharing companies in such a short time. Car2go, the company with only Smart cars, were the first to go once the first stops of the tramvia were completed. And I was quite sad when I saw Share n’ go uhh… go. That was the only car sharing I could legally use  once I got my Italian drivers license (there is a whole other blog on THAT). Then Covid hit and most of them went out of business. The only company that survived the pandemic was enjoy, which is partially funded by the municipality of Florence as well as Eni, one of the biggest gas and energy companies in Italy

Bike sharing, on the other hand, came after the cars. However, whoever created or bought these companies was smart. 

The first there were Mobike and Gobee. The latter quickly went out of business, and shortly thereafter you’d see the lime green bikes being used around town as personal bikes by those who bought the stock. 

The very first version of Mobikes were quite heavy and slow. As the brand grew, the name changed to MOVI and the bikes became a little more like city bikes, lighter and faster. I’ll never forget the first time I saw that they had incorporated e-bikes to their fleets. Those were a total game changer. (More on that later…)

After the bikes came the aforementioned controversial monopattini, or electric scooters. BIRD scooters were the first ones on the market. Shortly thereafter MOVI introduced their own scooters to get  some skin in the game. One thing I have noticed is that MOVI keeps improving their designs and therefore reigns supreme in the bike and scooter sharing department. 

That being said, BIT Mobility has also entered the chat. At first it was only scooters, but shortly thereafter they added motorini to the mix. I cannot describe the feeling of elation I get when I rent one of those. Not only are they much faster than bikes and scooters, they also get you places much faster than even cars. 

Florence is quite small geographically speaking, so you really can walk almost anywhere. That being said, sometimes you’re running late, others it’s much too hot to even fathom. But whatever the reason you choose to use one of these vehicle sharing companies, there is one thing for certain: Firenze has options.