Left Rome about 9:45 for Florence (we wanted to leave
around 8:15 but we got stuck in rush hour traffic on the bus going to the metro
station), got in around 11 (it’s a 95 minute train ride, they leave on the :15
and :45), and since our hotel was on the way between the train station and the
stuff to see, we checked in and dropped our stuff off. We were out and ready to
go by noon. We stayed at the Hotel Europa, which is one of Rick’s recommended
places (but our rates were much lower since it was off-season).
First off, since you’ll be going to both of the museums
(the Uffizi and the Accademia) that are going to have huge lines, you’ll need
to make reservations as far in advance as you reasonably can. Otherwise you’ll
be standing outside for literally hours. We were lucky, we had checked online
when we were in Rome and we were told that in mid-November there are no lines
and so we didn’t need to make reservations. There were maybe a combined 10
people in front of us in line at both museums and inside it wasn’t crowded. I expect
it to be much different in June.
