Please suggest places to stay, eat and see in the described area
Posted by
North Carolina
362 posts
Very best source of answers to these questions is Rick's Florence & Tuscany guidebook. After you have thoroughly studied all his great information then perhaps Forum can respond to some more focused and specific questions. Your question is far too broad, IMO, to get anything useful here.
Posted by
Placentia, CA
1059 posts
My wife and I stayed at the Hotel California in Florence last year and really liked it. It has a great location about 2 blocks from the Duomo and is on the same road as the Accademia. I would stay there again when we go back to Florence. I highly recommend the "Golden View" restaurant in Florence. It is on the Arno river and overlooks the Ponte Vecchio bridge. The food is very good, reasonably priced, and the view is very good. Dinner reservations are required unless you eat early. We got there at 6:00 pm and got a table next to the window. We had to promise that we would be finished by 8:30 as the table was reserved. When we were finishing our meal, a couple were sitting down for dinner. They made their reservation months in advance. If you don't want to go to the effort to make reservation or eat early, you can always eat lunch there. They have a website that you can look at.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thanks to yosemite1 and Susan for your prompt and helpful replies. I understand that my initial posting question is rather vague so I'll try to be a bit more specific. My wife and I will be traveling in the late Spring or late Fall next year and have decided that the places we MUST see are 1) Florence 2) Tuscany's wine regions and 3) Lucca with Sienna, San Gimignano, Pisa and maybe even Genoa further down the list. Don't want to move around too much in terms of lodging...3 locations tops for a 7-10 day stay. We will be coming from Paris and think that flying straight into Florence would be the best way to go. Any comments/suggestions from all of the experienced travelers out there on anything I've got on this itinerary are most appreciated.
Posted by
San Francisco, CA (USA)
488 posts
"MUST see are 1) Florence 2) Tuscany's wine regions and 3) Lucca with Sienna, San Gimignano, Pisa and maybe even Genoa further down the list. Don't want to move around too much in terms of lodging...3 locations tops for a 7-10 day stay."
You want 3-locations tops but, you provide six locations...well, here's a basic itinerary framework to work off of:
3-nights in Florence
2-nights in Lucca (day trip to Pisa)
1-night in San Gimignano (or IMHO Volterra, not as overrun with tourist schlock)
2-nights in Siena
If you can establish your interests and absolute MUST see's, that'll give everyone else a sense of where to direct you and some suggestions. If you haven't read up on the region in RS book, you should start that first before tossing out questions that can easily be established via a bit of homework.
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
7175 posts
You didn't mention if you intended hiring a car, which for Tuscany is a good idea.
Fly in to Pisa, then to Lucca (2nts)
http://en.albergosanmartino.it
Via Pisa to Siena (3nts)
http://www.hotelitalia-siena.it/en/
(Excursion to San Gimignano)
To Montepulciano (2nts)
http://albergoduomomontepulciano.it/?lang=en
To Florence (3nts)
http://www.hoteldavanzati.it/wp/?page_id=138
Fly out of Florence