With train
stations in Naples and Rome now modernized, the national railway company,
Ferrovie dello Stato, is continuing in its effort to revamp another main
transportation hub in Italy: Florence’s Santa Maria Novella (SMN) station.
Although the station, with the status of national landmark, will keep its
original style designed by Giovanni Michelucci in 1934, most agree it was due
for a nip and tuck. Georgette Jupe tells us how the Ferrovie dello Stato
envisions Florence’s main station for the 21st century.
Work has
already begun at Florence’s central train station, Santa Maria Novella, as part
of an extensive, 15-million-euro project designed to upgrade the station and
facilitate transportation for the 160,000 passengers who pass through the hub
daily and the 59 million who travel through yearly. The work includes the area
around the station, as well.
With 35
workers at the construction site day and night, the Ferrovie dello Stato is
aiming for completed work by autumn 2012. Once finished, the station will
extend over two levels and feature an underground shopping mall, an escalator
connecting the main hall of the station to the underground parking lot, a
two-storey bookshop, a luggage drop-off service, dry cleaning services, and
space in the underground parking lot for 700 bicycles.
All of the
original marble and decorative elements of the station will be cleaned and
polished. The main hall and area in front of the ticket office will be
transformed into waiting rooms for those who travel on the high-speed train
lines, the Freccia Rossa and the soon-to-be launched private, high-speed train
line headed by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, called Italo.
There will be
new services. Florence’s baggage deposit will be part of a nationwide pilot
project: no longer just a place to store luggage, it will also boast
dry-cleaning services for frequent travelers and allow tourists to ship
packages and luggage anywhere in the city and to other train stations
throughout Italy. Still under discussion, however, is whether wifi service will
be made available throughout the station.
Part of the
project’s aim is to rejuvenate the station’s outdoor surroundings, too. Locals
can expect to see an iris garden in front of the station in 2013, while bike
racks and parking for scooters will be moved to the underground parking lot. A
‘kiss and ride’ area for quickly pick-up and drop-off will be located at the
current taxi stand, while the taxis and buses will have a special designated
area.
Officials are
also discussing ways to help the homeless, many of whom sleep outside the
station’s entrance in front of Piazza Adua. Because of the new shops and
restaurants opening along that same space, the City is working to find a more
suitable facility to shelter them.
While the new
look for SMN will debut in late 2012, locals and travelers will have to wait until
early 2013 for the opening of all of the new stores. Underneath what is
currently the waiting room, restaurant and pharmacy, the existing shopping
gallery will be expanded. New additions include a two-storey Feltrinelli
bookshop, which will replace the restaurant and McDonald’s (to be relocated to
the track 16 area, along with an Autogrill eatery). Some of the stores coming
to the underground shopping mall are Nike, Mango and Fiorella Rubino, as well
as the supermarket Conad.
