scoob

Thanks to everyone on this site for all of the help and ideas. We had a great time, 5 days in Florence, 3 in Rome. Arrived in Rome from JFK and immediately took the train to the Rome Termini, where we left for Florence. What an easy way to connect and easy way to get to the city, really is crazy NYC can't have such an easy commute to the airports. We bought our Eurostar train tickets to Florence at the airport station. Use the ticket counter as they speak English and take credit cards. We paid extra and went first class from Rome to Florence and glad we did. It is less crowded and has plenty of room to stow your bags in the overhead above your seats, rather than leaving them between cars. We stayed Hotel Tornabuoni Beacci in Florence and Hotel Casa (Flower Room) in Rome. Both Hotels were great in their own way. Tornabuoni was older but rooms were large and they had a beautiful garden patio overlooking the rooftops of Florence. Casa Howard-the room was certainly small but was extremely clean and a nice new full size in room bathroom. We did not find it too noisy and it had a real king size bed with 1st rate linens. Basically a fine place to rest a weary body after a full day in Rome.
Restaurants in Florence:
Trat. Mario-had lunch there our first day in Italy and it really gives you an authentic atmosphere right off the bat. We had to wait and by the time we were able to sit they were out of almost everything. If you get the Bistecca Florentine its better to share it and get the normal size as my smaller piece was over cooked though tasty nonetheless.
Il Santo Bevitore-probably our favorite restaurant on the trip. Cozy little place where you can sit and have a glass of wine with a primi or a full course meal. We loved all the food esp. the cheese and prosciutto primis. We actually went here 2 of the nights in we were in Florence.
Trat. Garga-real fun atmosphere, the chef was singing opera in the open kitchen the night we were there, and the food was quite good but be prepared to pay for it.
Cibreo-we went to the tratteria and quite glad we did. Be prepared, the food was good but definitely very unconventional, i.e.. the chicken mousse served in the chicken neck with the head still on. While not so exotic all of the other secondi are out of the ordinary as well. The ristorante is very expensive but the trattoria has much of the same menu and is half the price.
Rivore-a popular place for coffee and a snack near the Uffizi. While I am sure it is great place to sit and people watch during warmer months in the outdoor seating, it was too cold while we were there and ended up being and a very average overpriced stop, though my wife loved the hot chocolate, which is more like a hot fudge sundae w/out the ice cream than what we think of it as.
Sights in Florence:
Accademia-We reserved tickets in advance but when we got there around 11am there was no wait so we just went to the window and the nice gentleman saved us a couple of Euros by not acknowledging our reservation (the reservation surcharge)! We did not take a tour here which seemed all right because everything is explained in English and Italian. David was very impressive. Very awe inspiring. You can do the Academia in an hour.
Uffizi-We had bought our tickets ahead of time hear as well and sure glad we did. The line was at least an hour w/out reservations, we still waited in line the reservation line but was like 10 minutes. We did rent the headset here and if you are not part of a tour it is probably a god idea as there are no English descriptions and the building is quite large. The tour is quite long (2.5 hrs) but it is easy to ff. I thought the building itself was one of the most impressive things about the uffizi.
Rome-We got an English speaking tour of the Coliseum. We picked it up right outside, there were numerous groups you could offering, ours was only like 5 euros on top of admission and it was definitely worth it. We were not able to fins a tour group for the Roman Forum and that was too bad, we really felt like we were missing something without a knowledgeable tour guide explaining more of what we were seeing. Due to Saturday being a holiday we were a bit crammed with our sightseeing and sadly the Sistine Chapel was closed. We did walk around St Peters which was truly amazing in its grand scale.
We had 2 great meals in Rome both in the Piazza Navone area. First was this little place Ecce Bombo, which had very fresh food and very reasonable prices. My wife had her favorite pasta of the trip here. Our next stop was Brumante, right around the corner from Piazza NAvona. Great candlelight atmosphere. The food was very good. It was on the pricier side and the service was mediocre at best but just a real beautiful and romantic spot.
Overall we loved our trip and wish we could get back to see more of Italy sooner. I think the favorite part of the trip was the day we rented a car and drove through Chianti to Sienna and San Gimigano. The food is wonderful and fresh, while we are probably more spoiled than most living in NYC with authentic Italian food it was a pleasure being able to enjoy a wonderful meal without having to break the bank. And the wine, well was beyond words.

Statia

Thanks for the report, scoob. Sounds like you had a great trip.

ira

Hi Scoob,
Glad you had a good time. Thanx for sharing.

LouisaH

Thanks for the trip report. We're doing a very similar trip in early January so your post is quite timely.

gottheitch

thanks scoob,
we will be doing about 8 days in italy as well.
we would also like to incorporate a 1 day car rental out of Florence to drive through the Tuscany region as you did. we've been having a difficult time figuring out the easiest way to arrange a car rental that's conveniently located near our hotel in Florence (the Hermitage).
can you offer some suggestions as to how you arranged your 1 day car rental??

Thanks!

Byrd

Sounds like a wonderful trip!

Thank you for telling us about it!

Byrd

scoob

We just rented a car from the Hertz in Florence, which is near the Florence train station, should be no problem to walk to if you are in the main part of florence. We just went to the local AmEx office by the Duomo and thaey made all the reservations for a small fee. They also had the best conversion rates for travelers checks though credit cards and ATMs have the best.

Lesli

Thanks so much for your report. Especially the recomendation for Il Santo Bevitore, which sounds great, is near where I'll be staying, and which I don't think I've seen reviewed here before!

One *tiny* suggestion for next time would be that your report would be a bit easier to read with a few paragraph breaks inserted.