I am looking at 2 airbnb places in Florence but in different parts of the area. The first is in the middle of everything in Sant Ambrogio area and the the second is on the other side of the river in Santo Sprite San Frediano
The first place has great reviews but is $100 less that the Santo Sprite location but seems like it might be nicer to stay on the other side of the river.
any thoughts would be appreciated
It is Santo Spirito. I like being on Oltrarno myself but in this case I would let the quality of the apartment itself decide since the central apartment is cheaper.
Location is everything - views from your room are worth very little because you're probably going to spend the most time out and about sightseeing and not sitting in your room staring out the window.
We much prefer the Oltrarno side of the river. Much quieter. You can stroll across the Ponte Vecchio every morning, enjoy the city, then leave the crowds, congestion and noise behind as you retreat to your place in Santo Spirito.
Like Tim said, location is everything. As it is, you've done pretty well with the replies above. Alas, I have no first-hand knowledge of Florence, except I'm pretty sure it's in Italy. ;-)
Dick and Ilja I wanted to thank you so much for adding such valuable information to this thread. ; )
vandrabrud, you are welcome :-)
For our honeymoon, we stayed in a small B&B right in the main square that the Duomo is in for ~100e/night. It was exciting to be right by the Duomo and be able to look right at it through our window. However, I would imagine that for our next trip we would likely stay in a quieter place across the river.
Aaaand... this thread is now in the Italy section.
