where to stay without car around florence

Hello casyku2, welcome to the boards,

A couple of follow up questions:
1) What's the goal of not staying in Florence? Cost, too busy/loud, too touristy, etc.
2) What's your tolerance for distance "outside" the city?

If you're asking for an agriturismo or a small town with public transportation a few minutes from Florence that's one question. If you're looking to stay in a nearby city that's another.

Cities along the train line to Florence that you might consider depending on your interests:
Arezzo, Pisa, Lucca or even Siena (all probably 1-1.5 hours by train or bus)
Pistoia (40m) , Prato (20-30m) on the train

If you fill us in on what you're looking for/looking to get away from you'll probably get better answers,
=Tod

Hi and welcome to the forum -
Why outside of the city? Nearly all of the things visitors wish to see are in the historic center, and it's a reasonably compact and walkable area. We didn't have a car and didn't use public transit even once from our hotel during our 5 night stay. So is there a reason you don't wish to stay closer in?

one of three wants to be outside city to paint. Other two arephotgraphers who are not content to stay in one place for too long. agree to have base but need access to bus?train to leave base for 2-3 days at a time for photography jaunts

In that case I would decide what you want to paint/photograph and let that dictate where you look.

Tuscan countryside is an obvious choice for both of these interests and I would look to Siena or Arezzo as being interesting cities with closer proximity to Tuscan countryside and smaller, picturesque Tuscan towns eg San Gimignano or Volterra.
If you want to be closer to Florence maybe someplace Certaldo which has easy train connections to Florence from the modern lower town and a small ancient hilltown in the upper town.

The towns of Pisa and Lucca are better connected transportation-wise (because they're on the flat) and would give you access to the coast as well as other areas with more ease. Lucca has much more "ancient city" than Pisa does if that's what interests you.

If you check out on-line images of the various cities and decide if any of them are interesting enough to get everyone to agree on a single place for a base.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Hi, casyku2,
In 2016, we stayed at the Hotel Silla, Via De'Renai 5 close to the river and the Uffizi Gallery but on the other side of the river. It dates from the 16th or 17th century. We stayed two nights.

Jim

In Tuscany, I would add Volterra for the photographers.

Florence the Hotel David.

Unless you already have a specific place where your party wants to paint or photograph, I would stay in Florence or Siena and use it as your hub.

From the Florence train station you can take trains to whichever small town in the province (or even parts of Tuscany outside of the Province of Florence) served by trains. From the bus station near the train station you can also take buses to towns served only by buses. That choice would afford maximum flexibility on where to go and maximum reach.

An alternative to Florence would be to stay in Siena, if the focus of your activities is the towns in Siena’s Province or famous rural areas south of Siena, such as the Val D’Orcia.

Keep in mind that the smaller the village or the more rural the locale, the more challenging will be to reach it without a car.