My wife and I are going to Florence for her 30th. Any tips on hotels and apartments? Also what’s best to see and do.

Uffizi (of course) – edit: book tickets online before going to save the queue
Academa (of course)
Inside Market – wonderful
Boboli Gardens
Tripe
Tower of Pisa – maybe a bit tacky, but as you are going to be in that neck of the woods, it would be rude not to and there are more flight options from Pisa with a quick and efficient (by Italian standards!) rail connection to Firenze
Day trips to Sienna and Lucca if you have the time.
Enjoy

My wife and I stayed in Florence for a few days as part of our honeymoon. So much to see and do in the city itself.

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Cavour, just around the corner from the Duomo. Great hotel, with a fantastic restaurant. There are loads of other cheaper restaurants (Tratorias) in the back streets, don’t be afraid to go exploring. There was one in particular, down Via Dante, that was excellent. Can’t remember the name though.

+1 for the Boboli Gardens.
-1 for the Uffizi (IMHO).

We really wanted to go to the science museum when we were there but we ran out of time. Now called Museo Galileo, I think.

Have fun!

How could I forget?
Brunelleschi’s Dome in the Duomo
Interesting read on it here – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brunelleschis-Dome-Ross-King/dp/0099526786

Hotel Residence Johlea or any other of same group (all on their site). Great places.

Yellow bar for best pizza ever.

Things to see – any of the usual that take your fancy. Uffizzi good of you really like art but therr’s lots of it!

The Duomo is a must see, an incredible building, and the interior of the dome is mind blowing.

-1 for the Uffizi (IMHO).

+1 (this could get confusing) there’s just to much to see for a days visit, you walk around looking at incredible painting after incredible painting, and it just sort of washes over you. I would suggest if you seriously like your art to spend 2 days at least in there. There are many, many other museums, art galleries and churches with the most incredible stuff in, it seems a shame to ‘waste’ a day in the Uffizi.

Boboli Gardens +1

Just walking around Florence, stopping and looking in churches is a great thing to do, we went for three days, and alot of that time just walked about, taking it all in, stopping for a coffee every now and again.

Oh yeah. Vivoli ice cream. The best ice cream ever. you have to go.

The Duomo is a must see, an incredible building, and the interior of the dome is mind blowing.

and while you’re about it- check out Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise on the Baptistrie (small building at the front of the Duomo). Inside is ok, but the doors are the main attraction
Piazza and Loggia Di Signoria

Also, Siena +1. short trip on the train, easy to spend the day wandering about in.

All of the above, but……..go out of season.

I went in January a few years back with a mate of mine. No queues anywhere, hotel cheap as you like and still a great city to wander around as it is very compact. Get a book or two and read up on the art in the city. Even a couple of thick uncultured Geordies got loads more out of the trip when we understood the art and the context of it a bit more.

Your SO will want to buy some gloves there. It is a centre for leather glove-manufacturing in Italy. Lots of shops. The Fiddlers Elbow is a good example of an Italian Irish bar!

Just walking around Florence, stopping and looking in churches is a great thing to do, we went for three days, and alot of that time just walked about, taking it all in, stopping for a coffee every now and again

For most people the above is enough.

Quite the most fantastic place to visit, loads of art, people watching, food etc.

I believe Sienna is well worth a visit.

And whatever everyone else said up there ^^^^^

Plum

just a warning that it can be rediculously hot around this time of year…..

Thanks so far guys. Some great suggestions.

We’ll be driving down as we live in Southern Austria and we plan to go in November so it will be a good deal cooler by then. We will also be there for 4 days so hopefully enough time to get a feel for the place.

IIRC some hotels have deals for parking. We had the car taken away and parked for the duration of our stay as you really don’t need it for the city. What few parking spaces there are cost an awful lot if you do it any other way.

Check out the Duomo….its just near the wailway station

There is a reasonable car park at the Railway Station too.

the countryside is great as well,if you’ve got a car,
castellina,radda,gaiole in chianti,for ex.
I used to love driving in the summer,at night from castagneto to volterra,san gimignano(towers) then florence.spend about 2-3hs in each place then drive on.you can do it the other way round and end up at baratti,nice beach,as well as estruscan burying site,castle as well,but it’s later.
in florence itself I’d reccomend da mario,
http://trattoria-mario.com/
lucca is nice,but pisa has more to offer,less atmosphere though.

good restaurants everywhere mostly.

you’ll be exhausted from all the looking at museums so factor in some rest periods.otherwise it’ll all become a blur of rinascinmento-etrusco-medioevo.