Please sign in to post.

Lodging in Florence

I am very optimistically planning a trip with my 2 daughters and 3 of my young grandchildren to Europe this June. Realizing the risks that we may have to cancel, I am still forging ahead. My question concerns the best location for our lodging in Florence. We will only be there for 2 full days - one of which will entail a bike ride thru Tuscany. So, it's really important for us to have a place that is close to the best sites in the city. If anyone has any suggestion about best location & even best lodging, I would be very appreciative. Ideal for us is a 2 or 3 bedroom apt., but, if needed, we can also stay in a hotel. Thank you.

Posted by
261 posts

This B&B is listed in Rick's book and location is spectacular with balcony looking at the Duomo
for breakfast & cocktails anytime...Residenza Giotto, air con,breakfast,elavator and great price.
10 min walk from the train station and close to all the sights.

Posted by
1357 posts

Our only visit to Florence was in 2010 and we stayed at the Hotel Loggiato dei Serviti based on a recommendation from the Rick Steves Italy guidebook. We enjoyed and recommend it. BTW - it remains an RS recommendation based on his 2020 Italy guidebook.

Posted by
15682 posts

Hi again, Lindah!
I remember you from this post before the world went wobbly:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/trip-to-amalfi-coast-from-florence

Apologies for taking a side step from the topic but I'm curious if you are still trying to follow that itinerary you posted, oh, about 1/3rd of the way down in that thread? I've a feeling that you are as I'm seeing mentions of 2 days in Switzerland, 2 days in Salzburg, 1 day in Venice (after a night train from Salzburg), 2 days in Florence... lots of moving around. Not sure how long you'll be spending in Paris this time, if you cut the Amalfi Coast, how long you'll now be spending in Rome, etc. Anyway, were you able to cut that previous plan down as advised by pretty much all of us concerned about the pace of that original itinerary? Especially with 3 youngsters along? Would be interested in seeing what the complete plan looks like if willing to share? We care that you all are not too tired halfway through to have any fun! :O)

And if would be helpful if you'd share your desired per-night budget for an apt. that can handle 6? I see from your most recent Paris post that 350€ per night is too high. And don't forget these ideas from your previous Florence post:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/lodging-in-florence-d82a333e-90a6-49e4-a720-458633241f3b

Someone mentioned looking at apartments on booking.com? Yes, they have flat rentals along with the hotel rooms so take a peek there. Consider the duomo roughly the center of Florence: you'd be OK anywhere in an area, say, between Museo di San Marco to the north, the Arno on the south, Basilica Santa Maria Novella to the west, and Basilica Santa Croce to the east.

Posted by
237 posts

Oh thank u so much for your interest. I have made some changes per everyone’s advice. 3 days in Paris; 2 days & 3 nites in Flumserberg, Switzerland; Then on to Salzburg for 2 days before taking a night train to Florence for 2 full days; then train to Naples where we rental a car & drive to either Positano or Sorrento for 3 nites; drive back to turn car in at Naples station - stopping Along the way for a 2 hr tour of Pompeii; then train to Rome for 4 nites before heading back home. Do u think I’m still being too ambitious with this itinerary? I did go to Booking.com & found lodging in Paris, Salzburg, Florence & Rome so I’m moving right along. All are 100% refundable because of the uncertainty about Covid. Thanks again for your interest

Posted by
15682 posts

Lindah, you decided (wisely, I think) to eliminate that single day in Venice?

And you're spending 1 of your only 2 days in Florence biking somewhere in rural Tuscany? My goodness, as I see you'll be celebrating your 80th this December, I am impressed!!!! 👏 I'd also have a Plan B in case of rain? As you say you only have 2 FULL days in Florence, that means 3 nights? It looks like only two, arriving by overnight train on Day 1. I don't know what's on your sightseeing list but actual date of that one day will matter, as not everything is open 7 days a week.

This concerns me....

..then train to Naples where we rental a car & drive to either
Positano or Sorrento for 3 nites; drive back to turn car in at Naples
station - stopping Along the way for a 2 hr tour of Pompeii;

...and this is just one thread which highlights why:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/car-needed-on-amalfi-coast

As well, you'll likely need a van for 6 people + luggage, and I don't know as I'd leave luggage or anything else you don't want to lose in an unattended vehicle at Pompeii. I wouldn't unless it could be hidden completely out of sight, anyway, or you check it at the scavi. As I don't want to be the only one voicing concern about a car on the A.C. in summer, you might make this a separate question to get a balanced viewpoint?

Posted by
237 posts

Kathy, how very wise of you to mention the issue of what might not be open on our one day of sightseeing in Florence. I looked at our itinerary, & we will be arriving by train in the early morning of Sunday, June 6. We actually only have 2 nights in Florence, but still 2 full days, as our early morning arrival will enable us to have a full first day. I didn't even think about what might or might not be open on that Sunday, so thank you so much for sounding the alarm. I will definitely try to find out about that. If worse comes to worse, we can do the bike ride on the day of our arrival, although that would not be an ideal situation at all. As for my "young" age of 80, beforwe you become too impressed, I will be on an e bike. Negotiating those Tuscan hills would be WAY beyond my capability.

Posted by
237 posts

Also wanted to address your concern about driving a car through Amalfi coast. What I thought would be workable is to take the train from Florence to Naples station, store most of our luggage at this station, rent a car from there to either Positano or Sorrento, stay there for 2 full days, drive to Pompeii for that tour, then back to Naples Station to turn in our car, retrieve our luggage & take the train to Rome. On my trip last summer with one daughter & 3 older grandchildren, my daughter was the driver & we really had no trouble driving from Rome to Positano. Only big issue was, once we arrived in Positano, we had a very hard time hooking up with our host & finding our lodging. That part was a mess because the host kept saying he was waiting for us in the center of town, but no one could tell us where the center of town actually was, so we kept driving around in circles!!!

Posted by
151 posts

Hmmm, 2 days in Florence...
You spend one day in Accademia (you can't miss David's statue while in Florence) and next day spend it in Uffizzi...
That's it, you ran out of days.. CAn't imagine going to Florence and miss those two must see places...
I don't see how you have time for anything else...

Posted by
2281 posts

hey hey lindah
happy you want to steer ahead with this vacation with your family. in my opinion you are not staying long enough in all your cities to warrant an apartment. you have a day here 2 days there, remember in all the places you are planning, your check in time is after 2pm. your night train to florence i'm assuming with arrive early (6am-8am). unless you can get early check in, store luggage, rent the room the day before, let apt/hotel know your arrival time. there are 6 of you, including your 3 grandchildren that may have jhad a good night sleep on overnight train. then walk around, eat breakfast with a restaurant open, if no luggage storage, find a place to store them, take your tuscany bike ride, hope not all tired and exhausted for it.
i think you are planning to see and do too much in time allotted, spending time checking in/out, time in train stations and on trains, finding way around new places, not knowing your budget, which has been asked of you many times, wanting budget within expensive city centers during busy summer time with your group of 6. if it's budget, you get what you pay for and not the location you prefer.
you need to consider raising budget or seeing less places, i sound like deloris downer but many here have given you lots of suggestions, plus you all may just want to sit, relax, enjoy the "view" instead of moving around so much, with grumpy and tired people.
aloha
aloha

Posted by
15682 posts

Regarding a Sunday arrival: Italian National Museums, such as the Uffizi, Accademia, etc. are closed on Mondays so you should be OK for sightseeing on Sunday depending on what it is you want to see. You will want advance tickets to the majors, like the Uffizi, if they're on the must-do list. I'd skip the interior of the duomo as it's more impressive outside than in.

I'll gently disagree with the poster above that it takes a day for the Accademia and another for the Uffizi. The Accademia is compact so with children along, the highlights can be seen in an hour or so. I'm an art geek so spent 5+ hours at the Uffizi but again, with children along you're unlikely to spend more than a couple. You may not be planning on doing it at all; not a bad idea as your time is going to be so short. What is on your list for Firenze?

Posted by
26841 posts

I suspect Kathy's right about museum time with children in tow, but if some of you don't sleep well on that overnight train (quite possible, in the experience of some of us), you may be in no condition to enjoy indoor sights on Sunday.

It really does depend on your sightseeing priorities. Monday is a very, very common closing day in some countries.

Posted by
26841 posts

I was a student traveling on borrowed money at the time of my first trip to Europe. I hardly paid any admission fees the entire summer; I just walked the streets, enjoying the atmosphere. The architecture! The street markets! You'll want to have some real Italian meals, but you can save a lot of money by eating from grocery stores often. Pizza is often about the least expensive option for something hot at a sit-down restaurant. It is usually excellent.

Posted by
15682 posts

acraven, I have the same concern about our OP and family arriving reasonably rested in Florence on an overnight train! Then again, we've never taken one of those so all I'm going on are the firsthand experiences others have shared on this forum. Would I plan on being in shape to enjoy an exploration of the city? Nope, but sleep doesn't come easily to me to begin with! 😴

Posted by
32523 posts

I don't find any direct night trains between Salzburg and Florence.

There are two choices that I find, both with an unfortunate change.

The earlier combination means getting a local S-Bahn at 21:21 to the end of the line at Schwarzach-St.Veit for an hour and 18 minutes, arriving at 22:39. Then a 15 minute connection onto the sleeper to Rome from Munich at 22:54. Stops at Firenze SMN at 06:16 (takes as much as 20 minutes for the Florence stop, but if it is running late they will take as short as a few minutes, just enough to get the crew turned around because the front of the train becomes the end and vice versa (SMN is a dead end station) and get out of town.

If I were considering that train I wouldn't want the small station change at 11pm. I'd probably make my way to Munich and pick it up when it starts its journey at 19:26 after a dinner at the nearby Augustiner biergarten. Of course if you take the booked S-Bahn you could eat at the Augustiner in Salzburg under the chestnut trees.

The other option is an early morning train to Venice and a quick change there for a train to Florence. I don't know what you will do until 01:40. The NightJet starts in Vienna and arrives in Salzburg at Midnight:24 and departs at 01:40. Maybe they will let you on after it arrives? I don't know what is happening for the 75 minutes it is Salzburg. Whatever happens you will want to be very very quiet getting on the train and settling into your room - the train left Vienna at at 21:27 so folks will have had 3 or 4 hours to fall asleep and won't want to be woken. The train gets to Venice - Venezia Mestre, which is mainland station NOT on the islands of Venice so you will see nothing of Venice, not even from a distance, at 08:23. It only stops for 2 minutes so you need to be ready to get off before the train stops. You need to find the Naples and Rome train in the 17 minutes you have (only stairs connect the underground tunnel to the platforms at Mestre unless something has changed very recently, no lifts, no escalators) which departs at 08:40, 4 stops to Firenze SMN and arrives at 10:39. It is only in Florence for a normal end-changing time of 9 minutes so you need to be ready to get off.

To be honest, none of these connectons strike me as a way to arrive in Florence refreshed and rested with a family.

Posted by
237 posts

Nigel, this is truly dismaying. When I began working on this itinerary a few months ago, there was a night train with a great schedule between Salzburg & Florence. I’ll check again when I have a chance, because I fear from what u say, that schedule must have changed. Thank u for letting me know. It will involve a need to make some changes to my itinerary, for sure

Posted by
32523 posts

post covid schedules -may- vary from current ones

Posted by
15682 posts

Wise advice from our Nigel, Lindah. Facts you were using to plan in a pre-COVID world might be very different in a post-COVID world. For your own and family's comfort, I'd plan a journey to Florence that doesn't put all the eggs into a sketchy overnight train scenario.

Posted by
237 posts

Really good advice! It is definitely very tricky trying to plan this trip when there is so much uncertainty in the world right now. Common sense says I should just wait & take my family on this trip in 2022, but my 3 grandkids would be beyond disappointed, & waiting another whole year is risky for me because, although I’m 80 years “young,” I’m still 80...😱

Posted by
4256 posts

You won't like this, but your trip would be much easier if you skip Salzburg and find a location in Switzerland near an airport where you can fly to Paris and then fly directly from Paris to Florence(hopefully this is still doable, but who knows?) Even if you are SOM fans, Salzburg is skippable since you will already have been in Switzerland. That also gives you 2 more days in Florence.

Edited: that's so cool about your granddaughters doing semesters in Salzburg and Florence.

Posted by
237 posts

I appreciate this recommendation about skipping Salzburg, but the reason this is part of our itinerary is because one of my daughters who will be with us spent her junior semester in Salzburg & really wanted to go back there to reconnect with some long lost friends & her host family. My other daughter, who is also on the trip, spent her junior semester in Florence, so I’m fulfilling 2 big wishes & making my family happy...(Hopefully). Thank you, though, for this wise input.

Posted by
827 posts

Back to your original question, I recommend Hotel Pendini on Piazza della Repubblica.

Posted by
102 posts

Lindah - with all due respect your proposed itinerary from involving four countries with six or seven cities on planes, trains, and auto with a party of six is overly ambitious. I would appeal to you to consider descoping to perhaps two countries with four stops and spend more days in each place, unpack and relax, especially with the uncertainties of 2021. Going all the way down to Almalfi coast after Florence then doubling back to Rome by car is a lot of logistics. Orvieto hill town sits between Florence and Rome on the train lines. But as they say It’s your rodeo so I wish you all the best.

Posted by
2281 posts

hey hey lindah
with all your traveling around with your family, make sure on your to do list is to get an IDP (international driving permit). available at AAA for about $25 and 2 passport photos.
it coincides with your drivers license and is needed to rent a car. every one that plans to drive will need one, car rental agency may ask for it or if by chanced stopped by "police" for any reason, they will ask. if you don't have one, a big fine so better safe than sorry.
aloha

Posted by
2 posts

Ciao,
I’m in Florence and work in the travel industry and I agreed that two days are not much here.
Florence is an open museum and although not big downtown is 2.5 miles by 2.5 there is a lot to see, even without entering Uffizi and Accademia (and see david open air)
For sure an hop on hop off bus service valid 24/48 h could be an idea as you can use to go from one side to the other and get off according on what the audio guide tells you. Of course can be done with a driver and a great tour guide, but price is different.

In town there are also some sightsing by bike and some amazing e by e mounting bike in the country side- with wine tasting or spa or overfly the country.
Not in large group maximum 6. Unforgettable and fun!

Now italy is amazing!!
Diana