I have visited these cities just once years ago. I do have Ricks book Best of Italy; he has several areas covered in these cities.
Based on your experiences, what were the best locations to see the sights using public transportation or walking.
thanks so much.
Walking! Many of the antiquities can’t be seen from public transportation.
Hotel / Location
Rome
Brunelleschi Luxury Holidays / Borgo Pio
Corso Vittorio 308 / Corso Vittorio Emanuelle II to Piazza Venezia
Florence
Tornabuoni View / Piazza di Santa Trinita
Both Rome and Florence are very walkable. We've never needed public transportation in either. Took a cab to our early am Vatican tour.
Rome- we prefer the area around the Pantheon/P Navonna,/Campo de'Fiori. From there you can walk everywhere.
Florence is so compact- anywhere between the Duomo- Ponte Vecchio and train station.
Thanks for your responses . Sorry for the delayed message.
Now planning details.
We like staying in the Oltrano area of Florence.
Hello June,
The areas of interest in Florence are small and walkable. As long as you stay near the core of the city it's hard to go too wrong or be too far from the action. As people have said the Oltrarno neighborhood is across the river and less touristed but is also farther from the train station so a cab may not be a bad idea for arrival and departure with bags if stay there.
For a city with ancient streets Florence does a good job with public transportation using buses for the exterior of the city and bigger vans for interior streets. Use Google maps public transportation tab for bus schedules and pop into any "T" marked tabac shops for a bus ticket. Validate the ticket in the stamper machine on the bus. Florence is really walkable but sometimes you're at the end of your walk and the wrong end of the city and a bus helps out.
It's been too many years since I was in Rome for me to comment but I remember the bus routes being confusing because they seemed to wind around the city in loops. Google maps has done a good job in other Italian cities and there are Rome bus apps as well. I know they just added pay by credit card tapping on at least some Rome buses but this is new.
In all of Italy you're only supposed to catch cabs at the cab stands - they are outside all airports and train stations and scattered around the city. Otherwise you can use a taxi app to call taxis or ask a nearby hotel to call one for you. There is an additional charge for calling the taxi to you. I used AppTaxi successfully in Verona, Vicenza, Padova etc but there are several - check the taxi stands signs or cabs for which taxi app the recommend.
It can seem intimidating but just remember that people use them everyday to get around the city so you're just joining in for a couple of days and it's no big deal.
Have a great trip!
=Tod
Christine nailed it. Both are very walkable, and the only time we also ever used a cab in Rome was to the Vatican. Otherwise, we walked everywhere. Florence has the tram, but it is so walkable that really anywhere is close.
Since you are now planning details, check out Hotel California in Florence -- yep, that's the name. Great place to stay and you can walk to just about everywhere. In Rome, consider Hotel Du Tori - we stayed in a sister hotel (now closed) and really enjoyed it.
