Relais Marignolle

Activities

Lorenzo and Victoria can arrange tours of the city and surrounding hills, and show you how to jump the queues by booking tickets for any museum or exhibition, concert or opera, ballet or football match for you, and book your taxis into town. And all in perfect English (or French, should you prefer). You could spend a month in Florence and still be making discoveries:

• Gawp at the tri-coloured marble façade of the Duomo and its adjacent baptistery and bell-tower; climb to the top of the dome for a bird’s eye view of the city
  
  
• Art lovers should spend at least half a day in the ultimate Renaissance picture collection, the Uffizi gallery, and amid the sculptures of the Bargello museum. To avoid queueing get tickets booked in advance
  
  
• Culture vultures can choose from 6 more museums in the Palazzo Pitti, and any number of sculpture-filled piazzas. It is also recommended to book in advance for the Accademia
  
  
• Stroll through the boutique-lined lanes and the bustling street markets which attract fashion buyers, antique collectors and shopaholics from around the world. Marignolle can also bring you to the designer shopping outlets around Montevarchi for top Italian labels
  
  
• Meander across the Ponte Vecchio at sunset, admiring the silvery river Arno or the golden sparkle of jewellers’ shops
  
  
• Ride through the city in a horse-drawn carriage, stopping to choose an ice-cream from the hundreds of flavours
  
  
• Get some fresh air in the Boboli gardens or the Forte di Belvedere, on the oltr’arno (south bank)
  
  
• Don’t forget to pop in to the wonderfully-frescoed church of Santa Maria Novella or visit Sante Croce
  
  
• Dine in a different recommended restaurant every night
  
  For more information on these and other sites in Florence, see our city guide.
  
  
• For golf lovers Marignolle will book green-fees at one of three local golf courses - historic dell'Ugolino whose course dates from 1933, Poggio dei Medici and Le Pavoniere
  
  
• Food enthusiasts can take cooking lessons in traditional Florentine cuisine with Paola
  
  
• Wine buffs can book wine tasting tours at the enotecas of Chianti (Cennatoio comes particularly recommended) - some can last up to 8 hours! - or at the inn
  
  
• Tours of the surrounding country are easily organised by the hotel; you are well placed to take yourself to Siena, Pisa, Lucca, Volterra, Monteriggioni and San Gimignano
  
  
• Or you can go on hikes through the woods and fruit groves