San Niccolo in Florence

That looks fantastic! You’ll be close to the Piazzale Michelangelo, San Miniato Al Monte, a few gardens Bardini, Iris), etc., and will have a short walk to get to the Uffizi and other major sites.

The neighborhood is great with some excellent restaurants and one if my favorite museums, the Bardini. Which end of the neighborhood will you be in? It stretches along the river, with one end being quite near the Ponte Vecchio. Use Google maps to check out some walking distances to the places you want to go —- you may be surprised by how close you are to the Duomo, etc. The “blocks” are not at all like what we call city blocks, so maps of Florence make distances look far when they are not.

And you'll be out of the insanity of being closer in. We stayed in the Oltrano on our last visit to Florence, which got us somewhat out of the mainstream, and then visited the San Niccolo neighborhood a couple of times for meals. Loved it! This advice goes double if you'll be there in high season.

I ended up not getting that apartment in San Niccolo because upon further inspection of the pictures, the second bedroom isn't entirely closed off from the living room.

We are staying in the crowded area between Via Por Santa Maria and Piazza de Salterelli. It's also between the Arno and Piazza della Signoria. The good news is that we're going in the off season and our apartment in on the 5th floor and has an elevator, so we shouldn't hear to much of the street noise. It also has some type of window glazing to minimize the street noise.

That looks cool too. One nearby thing I’d like to recommend is the Palazzo Davanzati, a.k.a. the Museum of the Old Florentine House.

If it doesn’t face directly on Via Por Santa Maria, then it should be ok.

Thanks everyone for all the great tips! I'll check out Palazzo Davanzati, it sounds interesting.