Hotel Lucchesi
 

Quick quesiton...how far is this hotel from the main tourist "attractions". I am learning the districts, but don't know how far apart they are. Is this a good place to stay if we want to walk to most of the places or is it remote?

Assume you are talking about the hotel in Florence..if so, we stayed there several years ago..it fronts on the Arno and I believe it is within sight of the Ponte Vecchio bridge and a few minutes' walk to the Duomo, etc. I say "a few minutes" because I cannot remember exactly how long it takes but the hotel is, in my opinion, within fairly easy walking distance.
If we are speaking of another hotel in a different city I apologize.

Oops, sorry. Yes, I am talking about Florence. Thanks!!

Yes, you are a 15-minute walk from Piazza Signoria. I stayed here in 2001 and never took a cab anywhere (except for Peretola. The cobblestone streets of Centro are bloody murder on the feet, so be sure to wear good walking shoes or trainers. The Plaza Lucchesi is a nice hotel, but the walls are paper thin. Try to get a room with a view of the Arno or Santa Croce.

We stayed there last May and walked everywhere from there. You are really close to the Santa Croce church and just a short distance to the Duomo from there. Everything is very close together

I also stayed at the Plaza Lucchesi recently and it was very well located, just a bit off from the center. But I walked EVERYWHERE except one night to the Opera. Its worth it to get a Superior room, preferably facing the ARno. I had a great balcony and view. And not too much traffic at night. Have a great trip.

We stayed at the Plaza Hotel Luchesi in Florence in Sept 2000. It is on the edge of but an easy walk to the main attractions. We found the hotel to be very pleasant with excellent service, and well located. We had upper floor rooms with, beautiful views of Santa Croce, the Duomo, and the city. Our first and last night dinners in the hotel restaurant were of excellent quality and among the better meals we had in Florence. The service provided by the hotel staff was extremely friendly, courteous, and very efficient. The only criticism is that we would have prefered a somewhat more charming and less sedate hotel with more Europeans and fewer Americans. However we have no complaint as the hotel more than met our expectations.

As for Florence, the lasting impression in our mind is a combination of raucous motor scooters belching fumes while scooting down narrow streets, incredibly beautiful collections of art in all its forms, and throngs of tourists. Somehow, there seemed to be fewer tour groups in Florence, particularily inside, as compared to Venice and Prague which we also visited on our trip. These tour groups were particularily insufferable in Venice. To us, memorable Florence sights were the Bargello museum, and the newly restored ceilings of the Pitti Palace. But there is so much to see and we did not have time to visit a number of places that I now ruefully realize should have been seen. Being a tourist is very hard work, especially in your 70s, but what fun it is!

One interesting experience we had was when one of my daughters had an asthma attack. The hotel staff were very helpful in arranging for a doctor to come to her room. She had to go to the nearby Hospital for emergency treatment. We do not recommend this experience, but there we did see a slice of italian life and "how they do it". Amazingly, the treatment was absolutely free under their medical system.

Another interesting sight was the fenced Kitty Colony with little houses we saw on our walk back down from the Piazzelo Michelangelo. A sign there warned anyone who harmed the cats would be subject to up to 4 years in prison.