Is the Italian taxi industry still highly regulated/restricted?

Question

I am researching a trip to rural Tuscany in the summer. It might be necessary to get taxis around. How common are taxis in Italy/Tuscany?

Here in Ireland, the taxi industry used to be highly regulated /restricted, with very few taxi licences, resulting in long waits for the taxi. I've been researching and I've found some documentation saying as of a few years ago, taxis were still very regulated and rare.

Has the situation changed in the last 5 years or so? Has there been a mass deregulation of taxis in Italy /Tuscany? Or are taxis still very rare?

Answer 1

Taxi is not a common solution in Italy, at least not common as in other european countries like Ireland, England, Germany and Spain (just to mention those I visited).

It is mainly used by businessmen and tourists who doesn't want to waste time studying the other public transport solutions.

It is still a highly regulated/restricted field and there has been several strikes (an example here) when the parlament tried to change the current laws.

You can have an example of how much you would pay having a look at the fares of the taxi company of Pisa: COTAPI

From my experience you could have to wait a lot to take a taxi during taxi's peek hour (that is when other public transport solutions are not possible like very early in the morning and late in the night) while during the day you shouldn't have to wait that much.

You could experience some problems in finding a taxi in little villages (even those crowded by tourists) while in the cities the solutions will be far more.