Rome and Florence Hop-on Hop-off busses good idea?

I like to use the HOHO buses, they're nice to use if you're traveling with someone who hasn't visited that particular city before as it helps them get the lay of the land so to speak. They're a nice break from all the walking and great for photo opportunities, I've taken some good photos of the colosseum from the top deck.

The line we used was Ciao Roma Open Tour when we last visited Rome. There's HOHO bus stands all over where you can purchase your bus passes. Some hotels sell the passes also, we bought ours from the hotel where we were staying at, they had a stop right outside which was perfect for us. Most lines follow the same route daily except on certain days like Sunday the route may differ a little from the original.

They're not on the cheep, prices run from 22-33 euro for 24-48 hours worth of all the HOHO you can stand. An added extra is they're nice to ride at night when you want to kick back and see the lights.

I wouldn't bother using them in Florence, better to walk this one.

My fiance and I saw them all over but we never used them. To us the 25 euros or whatever it cost wasn't worth it as the transit system usually got us to where we wanted to go.

If you only had a day or so and wanted to see everything you could or that was major then maybe it would be better.

To each their own though, I am sure many would disagree with me.

Based on my own experience, I wouldn't spend money on a HOHO in Florence. Everything is so close together, you'll do better on foot.

Central Florence is tiny. You can probably walk somewhere about as fast as waiting for a bus to show up.

Rome's bigger, but the metro works fine.

We have done the occasional HOHO bus. It's really great and relaxing. It will cost about $25-$30 for an all-day ticket.

I do agree with Doug that it would not make much sense to do this in Florence. Adding on to Doug's statement, the best sites are all not far apart and walking between them is not difficult.

I have used the hop-on hop-off buses in Rome on a couple of occasions and find them to be useful to see parts of the city that you wouldn't necessarily want to trek on foot to see. Florence has such a small city center, it is easily seen on foot.

When we are new to a city we almost always use the on/off. Ride it around once to get a good orientation and to determine what we will want to spend extra time at. Since most tickets are good for 24 hours we will activate the ticket around noon, 1 PM so that we can use it the following morning. Also this way the bus provides a little local transportation. The Archeology bus on Sunday in Rome is very good.

It sounds like a great idea if you have the extra money. So if it fits in your budget, go for it. One drawback that I see is that you practically scream "I'm a tourist" as you exit a double-decker bus, which may not bother some people at all. Personally I would rather spend the money on gelatos and buy the Rome 1-day bus trasit pass for 4 euros and do my own "hop-on, hop off" tour :-)

In Florence the HOHO bus doesnt make sense but in Rome we liked it.We bought a 24 hr ticket at noon and used it to go all the way around.Then the next morning we used it to go to the Vatican area.

Thanks for all the suggestions! Any opinions on which line to use? there are like 7 different ones in Rome!
Thanks!

For Rome, just get the Roma Pass, which includes Bus, Subway and the train to Ostia Antica.

Aside from going to Fiesole, or to the airport, we've never used a bus in Florence. We certainly wouldn't use one of the spendy HOHOs.