My husband and I just spent two weeks in Europe; Florence was our second city of five and one of my favorites. Upon walking out of the train station, we headed out and to the right and right there in front of us you could see the hotel. It is very close to the train station which is nice when you are lugging a 26-inch suitcase filled to capacity. The hotel has a lovely lobby and the front desk staff is very nice, spoke excellent English, and was very helpful on area information such as great places to eat dinner. There is a computer in the lobby for which they charge a nominal fee to use. We stayed at the Hotel Boccaccio for 3 nights. The only problem is that while the windows and shutters keep the noise outside where it belongs, the hotel itself can be noisy. For example, one night we were awakened by out neighbor coming home and speaking very loudly, we could hear every word. Another night we woke up to the squeaking bed in the room above us and chairs being moved across the wood floor over and over again. The rooms are small but nicely decorated and have wood floors which are nice to look at but make for more noise. The breakfast room is nice and they put out a lovely spread in the morning. There is a lovely terrace garden with tables and chairs surrounded by beautiful flowers on the second floor, great place to eat a pastry and sip a drink from the place directly across the street.

There is a tour company next door with whom we scheduled a ½-day trip to Chainti to to a castle which is a winery to do some tasting. It was a great trip and worth the money. The wine was good, the scenery was great! There are so many wonderful things to see in Florence. My suggestion is that if you want to go to any of the major museums, get your tickets in advance or the day you get there. We went our second day to the Uffizi to get tickets but could not get tickets until our last day at 1:45pm, this greatly delayed our departure to Rome and made us loose time there, but it was time well lost. The Uffizi is not to be missed, truly an amazing place. Climb to the top of the Campanile at the Duomo, 430 steps later you are tired but the views are well worth it. Mercato Centrale is a great outside shopping area around Basilica San Lorenzo, also the straw market near Piazza del Mercato Nuov makes for some great shopping! Leather and pashmina’s are everywhere with great prices. Discounts for cash and multiple purchases. Yes, even vendors in the outdoor markets take credit cards!

I highly recommend the Hotel Boccaccio for the budget conscious traveler; you get a lot for your money in a lovely setting.