Any advice for things to do and plan for 4 days in Florence would be appreciated. Also any great restaurant recommendations would be helpful. We are staying at the Excelsior so does anyone have any recent experiences there? Thanks

Hi,

The Florence part of my trip report might be helpful.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

Hi lwallace,

My husband and I spent four days in Florence last July. You can also find my trip report of such by doing a quick text search for "Statia Italy Trip Report."

I HIGHLY recommend eating at Garga. My trip report (still in progress) is titled "Eat Fast, Drive Slow": hopefully I will get the Florence portion completed sometime today.

-Kiki

I of course meant "Drive Fast, Eat Slow." Oh, it's def Friday...

Just got back,definetly the number 7 bus to Fisoele(sp?) for a drink at sunset,very easy and fun..you get on at St Marks sq. buy the ticket from the newspaper stand...best meal we have almost EVER had at L'Academie on St Marks sq,just behind the bus stop.Absolutley divine...

We just returned from Italy. We stayed 6 nights in Florence and 7 nights in Venice. In Florence we did 3 walking tours with Walking Tours of FLorence, http://www.artviva.com/originalwalk.html they were xcellent and the groups were small, less then 15 people. We also took a daytrip, by train to Pisa and another daytrip by private driver to Siena and San Gimignano with a short stop in Monterigioni.

JSmith recently posted a link to an article in the Times (London) with a three-day plan for Florence that struck me, after some 10 stays in Florence, as one of the best organized and most inclusive I have come across:

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/arti...130271,00.html

The fourth day could well be spent, as someone has already suggested, on a day trip to San Gimignano and Siena.

We had a wonderful dinner at Beccofino, a restaurant in the Oltrarno. The cuisine was a modern treatment of Italian ingredients and preparation. I had the best gnocci I have ever had in my life.

Pick up a paperback copy of the bestselling "Brunelleschi's Dome" by Ross King (at 167 pages you can read it on the plane).

Then you'll really appreciate this fantastic structure and want to make the ascent between the dome shells up to the lantern!

Goodmorning, twallace
Here are a couple of ristorante recommendations that we have used in Florence over the years and been satisified with them to return...
MAMMA GINA, Borgo S. Jacopo, 37r $$$ located just over and a half block to the right from the Ponte Vecchio.Good tuscan menu.
OSTERIA DEI CINGHIALA BIANCO,$$$ Borgo S.
Jacopo, 45r. Good moe country style tuscan menu.
TRATTORIA CELESTINO, Pza, S. Felicita, 4 r $$$ located just over soth end of the Ponte Vecchio just in little square to left, excellant veal chops and bistecca...
CANTINETTA ANTINORI, Palazzo Antinori, 3 $$$$ located near the railway station very excellant continental and
italian food and excellant own wine list.
TRATTORIA IL BARGELLO, Borgo de Greci, 37 r $$$ located just around the corner from the Palazzo della Signoria
small, close, but excellant tuscan food.
Richard of LaGrange Park, IL.

How far in advance do we need to make recommendations for the busy museams as we are leaving for Rome on the 20th and will be in Florence the end of July. Thanks fora all of your help. Has anyone heard of Acqua al 2 for a restaurant. I just saw this also on Rachel Ray for $40 a day and read about it on epicurious.