Early 4 a.m. flyers out of FLR don’t talk about this car park café at all.
This official Car Park with 24-hour cafe sits at Florence Airport Peretola’s single terminal, T1, but regulars in Tuscany forums instead describe arranging taxis from the city around 04:00 and eating before they leave town. That gap in real-world chatter tells you that, while the name promises a round-the-clock café next to the parking, nobody treats it as a core part of their FLR routine.
FLR itself is small, with most flyers told to arrive about 2 hours before Schengen flights and a bit more before non-Schengen; that timing matters if you plan to park here and walk into T1. The car park is official airport parking, which usually means barrier entry, ticket or plate recognition, and a short walk of a few hundred meters to check-in. Expect pricing to sit above off-airport lots in Tuscany, trading extra euros for being on airport property.
Travel threads from Rick Steves’ community and Facebook groups repeatedly mention longish check-in and security lines at FLR in the early morning, but zero mention anyone grabbing coffee or food at a 24-hour café by the car park. Instead, frequent visitors say to have breakfast in Florence and let your hotel book a taxi, often the afternoon before departure, for those 05:00–06:00 flights.
Watch out for the soft promise in the name: reviews about FLR’s pre-dawn departures talk about “nothing open” and “so quiet” around 04:00, which doesn’t line up with a lively all-night café at the parking. Treat any on-site café as a bonus if it happens to be serving, not as your only plan for food, coffee, or a place to sit with bags before security.
One practical tip: build a 20–30 minute buffer between when you park and when you want to be at the T1 check-in desk, and handle meals and caffeine in Florence proper instead of counting on that 24-hour café sign.