FLORENCE

PLACES TO STAY
(and Shop)

FLORENCE

There are wonderful places to stay in Florence. Karen Brown's book and website are filled with them.
Below is not the story of one of them.

BOARDING HOTELS/PENSIONES

Pensione Bencista in Florence was recommended in three travel books. We beg to differ:
o    You can't find it. The hotel's own maps don't have the hotel on them. The only good directions we got were from a competing hotel.
o    Most hotels/pensiones which include meals are designed either for people on a limited budget or with no sense of food. You go to Italy to eat well. You will not eat well in pensiones. (We can't say "very limited" budget, because it wasn't cheap.)
o    Boarding hotels/pensiones have brightly lit, crowded dining rooms. You go to Italy for romance. You will not experience romance in boarding hotels, at least not this one.
o    One guide book said the house wine was great. It was undrinkable.

GENERAL ADVICE: DO NOT STAY IN A HOTEL WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN BREAKFAST INCLUDED.

SHOPPING

RULE #6 - You shop in the little kiosks of Florence because it's the funky thing to do. It's fun to buy wallets and purses for friends, and shawls and scarves and Towers of Pisa carved out of bat dung. You will find leather and other goods at reasonable prices there and in surrounding shops, but don't expect designer labels.

To be more explicit, Kaye bought some fine leather purses and bags in shops away from the kiosk area. Russ bought a wallet he uses every day (still in use 6 years later) at the kiosk run by an American expatriate of 30 years, and keeps her website handy for ordering more - he's never found one that useful and that long lasting elsewhere else at any price.

If you're in Florence, you're seeing the David, the Uffizi, and other points of artistic and historic interest. You're probably spending two or three days. You'll be sampling some of Florence's fine restaurants. The chances are, you'll be shopping. Scarves and leather would be our first choices. Use Suzy Gershon's book - again.

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