Florence[INVALID]early morning flight-where to stay??

Sandy - believe there is an ibis hotel near airport... assume they cater to outgoing fliers

The airport is at most a 20 minute ride from town at that time of the day (my friend did it last week in 15 minutes at 7 am) so you could stay in town and still make your flight. I don't think the airport hotels make a for a significantly shorter trip in the morning as none of them are on site at the airport. It costs about 23 euro plus a euro for each bag you put in the trunk from the historical centre to the airport. If you are in a hotel, they will get a taxi for you. If not, just call in the morning for a taxi and one will come to you. You cannot hail a cab in Florence. There are taxi stands around town but it's better to call for a cab.

Thanks so much for the information! We are still planning on leaving tomorrow AND staying in Florence an extra day! Should I try to book museum tickets before I go? Does that keep you from having to wait in line??

You should try to reserve your tickets in advance by phoning Italy or going on line. The reservation number is country code 39 055 294883 Pick English as the language option. online: http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/uffizi/default.aspx There will be a short line to get your reserved tickets (a couple of minutes wait) and then you go to the line for reserved ticket holders with your ticket in hand and possibly line up again for a couple of minutes and then you are inside (this is for the Uffizi) If you don't have reservations, you are taking your chances with the line up to buy tickets. It can be very, very long. You can try calling as soon as you get to Italy also - I did manage to get two tickets last week by calling the day before, but they only had 4:45 pm available. Extraordinary opening "Art Tuesdays" are also happening and this Tuesday is one of them if you are in Florence: "Uffizi Gallery, Accademia Gallery, Bargello National Museum, Medici Chapels, Museum of San Marco, Museum of Palazzo Davanzati, Gallery of Modern Art, Palatine Gallery
will be extraordinary free open from 19.00 to 23.00 have been scheduled on: 29 March, 26 April, 31 May, 28 June, 26 July, 30 August, 27 September, 25 October, 29 November and 27 December 2011."

One last recommendation re the taxi in the morning. Let your hotel know the night before that you are leaving very early and need a taxi the next day. They can have one waiting for you at the door that way.

Note that the airport doesn't open until 5:00am. Lufthansa and Swiss Air check in opens at 5:30am. Air France opens for check in at 6:00am. Here's the link to the page that I'm looking at for these hours. http://www.aeroporto.firenze.it/EN/index.php?percorso=contents&jk=33&curr=0 You can easily catch a taxi at 5:00am in the more central areas of Florence and make it to the check-in counters by 5:30. There is the IBIS Firenze Nord hotel 2.5 miles from the airport. The center of Florence is just 5 miles from the airport. No evidence on the website of a shuttle to the airport from the IBIS.

From what we have been reading, there is no advantage to staying at airport hotels since they do not have early morning flight bus shuttles so it seems that staying in Florence and getting a taxi works just as well. We have a 6:40 departure time in the morning. Any advice to offer? We are also finding it hard to find a reasonably priced hotel to stay in. Thank you in advance for your help.

I've stayed at Il Salotto di Firenze which is a b and b very close to the duomo. Depending on when you go, it can be reasonable in price. They will arrange a cab for you if necessary for the early morning departure.