I've booked all my hotels except Florence and Sienna. Florence is overwhelming, I've searched this site and many others well actually all others so please don't give them to me to check. I need personnal opions. Everyone seems to love Hotel Desiree and Hotel Cacsi. (Spelling on both are probaly wrong). I would like to be more in town, Berchielli is booked. those seem to be by the train. We're looking at no more than 200 euro for a double in March. Would stay in a cheaper hotel and pay more for a view.
2nd question is distance from Rome to Sienna and Sienna to Florence by car. I have also checked into that and itseems a bit confusing. When I get a hotel in Sienna I will use Mappy. We're trying to decide whether to skip Tuscany (except for Florence) and add the days to each other city. Or is it worth it to stay one night in Sienna and tour on the way to Sienaa then on the way to Florence. Thanks to everyone here the other cities were a piece of cake to book, I just can't decide on Florence.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I can't seem to get my post in the Italy section, can anyone help. Also what does ttt mean in a reply???

We always book the Best Western Lazarus. Free breakfast and is located just steps from the Duomo. Open the window and you have it right there.
LisaS

ttt = used to bring post back into circulation.
LisaS

What do you mean, "more in town?" The Hotel Casci is in a great location. I would have thought the Berchielli would cost a lot more than the Casci..how much are the doubles at Berchielli? They book up early due to lots of trade shows.

Siena has one "n," by the way. If you don't mind my saying so at the risk of offending you, you need a tremendous amount of help with spelling. Never mind..keep asking but slow down a little bit.

You know I almost added please don't be mean to me b/c it seems alot of people answer posts with just negative things to say. Not everyone sits on the computer everyday and does this. I pretty much hunt and peck before I have to tend to my 3 year old. So please forgive me for my spelling, especially with Italian towns. I spell checked this for you. You didn't even answer anything. Do you just go around to critique others posts? About Hotel Casci it seemed to look like it was by the train station

By the way Thank you Lisa for the explanation and the hotel recommendation.

Sorry, Jody, I did not mean to be mean and I apologize. The Hotel Casci is not right by the train station.

Now I feel bad for being mean. It's just that I was nervous to post on this anyway, b/c I've seen some of the replies. I actually think we're going to book there just to end the madness and move forwrd. The price is very reasonable.

Jody, I have been to the Hotel Casci FOUR times in the last several years. It is NOT near the train station at all. It is a block and a half away from the Duomo and even closer to the Accademia (where David is). So you really cannot be more central than that. I don't know what you are looking for. This is NOT a glamorous, fancy hotel. It is a wonderful, small, family-run hotel with about 25 rooms, immaculate, sparkling-clean, (ask for one of the recently renovated rooms), great bathrooms, good breakfast with lots of variety (not just the coffee and cornetto in the A.M.), Wi-Fi in the rooms for free. What more can you ask for? If you have other specific questions, I would be happy to try and help.

The Hotel Casci location is a fine one in the historical center, I would not be concerned. Just take all hotel descriptions beginning with "just steps from" with a grain of salt.

Lisa1271 - If you meant the Best Western Laurus, then I agree with your assessment.

Hi Jody,

If you go to www.mappy.com and enter 13 via cavour (address of the Casci) you will see that it is a 10 min walk from the Duomo.

Another hotel that has been recommended in the past is
www.florenceby.com/davanzati/

It's closer to the Arno and about 6 min from the Duomo.

Check out the Hilton Garden Inn in Florence. They have recenlty taken over or built a few there. Look at the website. We were there in Novenber and of the 6 hotels we stayed in from Rome to Varese, the one in Florence was the worst. I won't even give you the name. The city however more than made up for the not so comfy room.

My apologies...I misspelled November.

jody
We stayed at the Hotel Globus and liked it very much. It's right near the San Lorenzo Market and about a five-minute walk from the Duomo.

You seem very concerned about hotels being near the train station. The historical centre of Florence is very small and you'll be eliminating about half of it if you try to avoid anything near the station. If fact, you're bound to walk around it's perimeter at some time or another getting from here to there. Is there something in particular that concerns you about it? Has someone told you it's unsafe?

I really don't think you have to worry about it. If you don't want to walk by the station for some reason, just take another route to wherever you're going.

I haven't seen any statistics but I don't think of Florence as a high-crime city. We walked everywhere, day and night.

For another option, we enjoyed our stay at Relais Uffizi - right in the thick of things! The rooms were spectacular, reaonably priced, and friendly service. Hope this helps...

Jodybocc: We were in Florence a year ago and stayed at Hotel Davanzati. Excellent!! Can't say enough about the place. Great location and Fabrizio will point you in all the right directions!!!

Thanks everyone for the clarification on Hotel Casci. I don't know why I thought it was near the train station. I went ahead and booked there for the 3 nights. I t gets great reviews on all the web sites. So now on with the rest of the planning. So mappy.com is pretty accurate with distances I hear. We are planning on overnighting in Siena, looks like thats a good stopping piont. We're driving from Rome dropping our bags in Siena then heading out for the rest of the day to San Gimignano and hopefully Massaciuccoli. Next day heading to Florence stopping in the Chianti area. We know its alot but we decided to shorten the country side (save it for another day) and spend it in Florence. I need to figure out the travel time now. Anyway my question is are those the areas that you would stop in and sleep in are should we consider others.

I also forgot to ask if anyone can reccomend a hotel or B&B in Siena? We're only going to be there on night and only sleep there so on the cheaper end would be better. Walk to town would be good also, we;ll have a car but would prefer to not use it (hopefully we'll consume to much vino) anyway price range is around 100 euro is possible.

We were pleasantly surprised with our last minute stay at the Hotel Chiusarelli. Although the rack rate is higher than 100 Euro, you might be able to get for less particularly if you call directly. When we were there, the desk staff were fluent in English and unusually helpful. We paid 89 Euro in January 2005. That included a very nice breakfast. The location is good - right outside the wall but on a busy street. Thus, you would want to specifiy a room at the back of the hotel. I would not accept one facing the street. The rear rooms face a green area and the soccer stadium. There were no games during our stay. Our room was very nicely furnished, clean and had an upscale bath. The public spaces are elegant. There is an outdoor market about 2 blocks away on Wednesdays that was fun.