Venice to Florence
 

I have planned my first few days to be spent in Venice, from here I would like to go to Florence but I am really unsure of where to stay because I will be in this vicinity for about 4 nights I would like to stay centrally. I do plan on visiting Pisa, rest I am unsure of. I have a 3 year old and my husband and I, we will have a stroller to get around and make it easy for the little one to take naps. I do want to see things that I can explore on my own, what are some of the main attractions that I should see for sure? Thanks !

Central Florence is very small. Google the top sights or pick up a little guide book for Florence. A few of the big sights are the Duomo, baptistery, Uffizi, Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio and Accademia, but there are many. You need to research and figure out what interests you. Learning something about them ahead of time will make them more interesting for you.

You can also download small maps of both Florence and Venice. Nice to get a sense of the layout of things.

When you go to Pisa, adding Lucca would make a nice day. There are other hill towns in Tuscany you might want to see. Google or guide book would be useful to you.

What time of year are you going?

going beginning of the year.

Florence is small which means the tourist based restaurants are focused in a smallish area. Outside the main central area pavements get narrow/cobbles and any baby buggy gets harder to push (chest or back pack may be more useful if you stay out of the central area).

4 nights or so in January say may open up staying in flats or ABnB rather than hotels. Certainly I've stayed over the bridges from the main drag and found good places to stay even though they are a bit further to walk.

Both Pisa and Lucca are a 45 minute train commute from Florence, so you may prefer to stay where you are and let the train take the strain.

>>> we will have a stroller to get around
Use google street view to see what kind of streets you have to deal with your stroller. If you are traveling with a model with small hard wheels, your child would be jarred as if sleeping on a jack hammer. The streets are tiled with rectangular stone blocks. While the city seems to be continuously maintaining the smoothness, many streets are behind in maintenance. What I see young European parents do is to have both a stroller and a carrier. They use a carrier when navigating bumpy streets and routes requiring frequent stairs. Venice is also a hassle with a stroller. One of my colleague just came back from Venice with a 2 year old and quipped what a hassle it was to go around Venice with a stroller with never ending parade of bridge stairs.

If mainly doing Venice, Florence and Pisa consider taking the train - cars are banned from most city centres and obviously in Venice it is hard to drive.

As it is such a short trip I'd just do those three places.

For lots on trains check www.trenitalia.com - site of the official state railways; www.seat61.com - great advise on discounted tickets; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Start to train the little one to ride on Dad's shoulders. Long before the trip, so both are getting used to it. As others have pointed out, strollers are most impractical in the places you're aiming at. On the web, check out all the photo sites with travel pix that people post and concentrate on the street surfaces. Also google street view where available (not always available from places where cars are banned).

Thanks everyone for you replies, unfortunately at almost 38 pounds she will be very hard to carry all the time. She is also at a point she wont be able to walk a lot so what we are thinking is getting out in the day light exploring what we can, with frequent breaks and coming back to the hotel in the evening so she could rest up before dinner. Our stroller has big wheels but we are thinking it might be a better idea to bring an umbrella stroller so we can carry it up the stairs. below is a pic of our stroller.

https://sep.yimg.com/ay/albee-baby/b...2016-red-8.jpg

I would take your existing stroller rather than a small-wheeled umbrella stroller.

Steps in Venice seem to come a dozen at a time and are not a problem for an old guy like me.

In Florence, if you skip the various church roofs and domes, the Boboli Gardens, and the Laurentian Library, steps aren't really an issue. Bumpy pavements can be ameliorated by a thick wrap, some kind of insulated bag, or a thicker pad. 3 year olds are pretty tough.

Definitely take the train among the cities you want to visit. This is easy in Florence because you can stay very near the railway station and its namesake church, Sta Maria Novello, and be within a very easy walk of most things you want to see.

We stayed at a place called the Hotel de Paris about halfway between the station and the Duomo. Half of it was an old palazzo and half more modern. A helpful staff, excellent breakfasts, and an elevator, important for the stroller, but no big lobby to hang out in. I found it on Venere, where I find a lot of lodgings in Italy. Mostly British and North Europeans staying there.

Steps in Venice seem to come a dozen at a time and are not a problem for an old guy like me.>

Many of the zillions of humped bridges in Venice also have special places to roll things on - like strollers -not a real problem and as Ackslander says the bridges without them have very low steps.

Lots of folks haul baggage carts around Venice.

I do plan on visiting Pisa, rest I am unsure of. I have a 3 year old and my husband and I, we will have a stroller to get around and make it easy for the little one to take naps>

Do Pisa as a day trip from Florence and take a train via Pisa Centrale to Pisa S Rossore - on the coastal line north and literally a very short stroll from the Leaning Tower area. You can take a train from Pisa S Rossore to Lucca to see a fantastic old walled town known for its many towers and from there back to Florence-making a circle.

These are regional trains that are dirt-cheap and flat fare -just buy your ticket before the train -no seat reservations possible -can always get on- for a few extra euros go first class on regional trains where you will surely have lots of room for the stroller- not all regional trains may have first class however.

I have been in Italy with a small child, and I disagree with a lot of the information here. A stroller is something that can be very useful at times, and at other times not very useful.

I didn't find the cobblestones to be a problem as much as the obstructions. (Anyway, they're not cobblestones, but paving blocks.) For example, motorcycles parked in the walkway, cars double parked, cars parked bumper-to-bumper in the pedestrian crossings. Once we followed a map only to find that the street had a long stairway in it. (This was in Rome, not Florence.) The center of Florence is mostly pedestrianized, but there are still some cars and vans (residents, social service vehicles, delivery vehicles, etc.)

On the other hand, carrying a toddler is not really a viable option for any length of time. (A sling is a help for short periods, and takes up very little room.) A stroller is great in museums that allow them, at restaurants that have room to park a stroller near your table, and about 75% of the time on the street.

For that other 25% of the time, when the stroller just isn't working, or when you need to take a bus, it's better that the stroller be lightweight and easily foldable, so that one of you can carry it for a short distance while the other carries (or holds the hand of) the child.

I recently stayed in the vicinity of the Florence Santa Maria Novella station, so it was walking distance to/from there (helpful if train travel intended) and the major sights in Florence (the city is quite compact). Lookup the search function on Booking or TripAdvisor etc. for options meeting your budget and specific needs. We enjoyed visiting the Duomo, the grand squares (Piazza Della Signoria, Repubblica), and in particular crossing the Ponte Vecchio to the Oltrano and heading out to Piazalle Michelangelo (with glorious views of Florence, and Gregoraian chanting at 5.30pm at the nearby San Miniato Church). The Uffizi and Accademia are popular museum choices.

Check out the Florence Card:

http://www.firenzecard.it/?lang=en