Florence - Cobbled Streets & Back Pain

[russ331]

The P&O Excursion Brochure says that Florence is pedestrianised with cobbled streets. Are the cobbles a problem for people with bad backs?

[blitznbobs]

Depends in what way your back is bad. I doubt it would do you any long lasting damage but uneven surfaces may exascerbate your symptoms...

 

BnBx

[kevinyork]

We took mum in her wheelchair and I cannot remember it being any more cobbled than any other European city we have visited.

[southwinds]

Most of Italy has very uneven paving stones.. Rome is a night mare. It might not be cobbled but just broken and uneven... We did a walking tour and you do lots in Florence.. slow walkers do hold the party up...

 

I would make sure you wear good walking shoes any where in Italy !!! I saw many in flip flops go over !! and those in heals regret it as well..

[jodanuke]

No reall difference from anywhere else really. Apart from Greece, where the pavements are the worse I have seen anywhere!

[caber]

We were there last summer and I don`t remember noticing very uneven streets.

[Host Sharon]

I don't remember Florence streets as being particularly bad, and I have very poor knees. Lisbon is horrendous but I was fine in Florence and Pisa.

[littlesteelo]

Most of Italy has very uneven paving stones.. Rome is a night mare. It might not be cobbled but just broken and uneven... We did a walking tour and you do lots in Florence.. slow walkers do hold the party up...

 

I would make sure you wear good walking shoes any where in Italy !!! I saw many in flip flops go over !! and those in heals regret it as well..

 

Agreed! I learned the hard way deciding to go on an all-day Florence tour in sandals :eek:

[russ331]

Thanks for the reassurance. We will book a P&O excursion to Florence.

[Merlin7]

They do edge on the side of being ultra cautious in their description of tours, in our experience. Probably they do not want customers cmplaining that the street was not dead flat but had a rise of a couple of inches somewhere alio its route.

 

I am not being facetious about this,one of us has a mobility problem and many times we have shied away from tours due to their description only to find that they would have been OK for BOTH of us.