The Best B&Bs in Florence

A room at the B&B Residenza del Proconsolo, in a 15th century palazzo overlooking the Duomo in Florence

How to find, and reserve, the best bed and breakfasts in Florence in every price range and neighborhood

A Florentine bed and breakfast essentially works something like a small hotel that provides breakfast and is located in the owner's home (or at least an a converted apartment in their building). The size is limited to no more than 3–4 rooms or 6–8 beds total.

This usually means a cozy, welcoming, friendly place with a bit more interaction with your hosts than at a hotel—and B&Bs are usually anywhere from 5% to 40% cheaper than hotels.

Expect to pay anywhere from €35 to €140 for a double room at a typical B&B.

Note that there's a thin line (often just which set of local standards, requirements, and legal complications the owner wants to deal with) between what's called a B&B and what's called an affittacamere (rental rooms).

Favorite Florence B&Bs

Residenza del Proconsolo★★

The rooms at the Proconsolo—starting at €100 list, but down to €80 if you book online—are not only a good deal, they also come with the decided advantage of overlooking Brunelleschi's cathedral dome…and they do so from the canopied beds and high ceilings of a genuine Renaissance palazzo. Also, you get breakfast in bed (or at least in your room). All that, and it's officially a "rental room" outfit. The best rooms—"Leonardo," with its canopy bed and tall windows, and "Brunelleschi" (pictured) with a poster bed and wrought-iron balcony—are on the front with high ceilings of thick wood beams and views of the cathedral a few dozen yards away...

Via del Proconsolo 18; tel. +39-335-657-4840; www.proconsolo.com

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Finding the perfect Florence B&B

The Florence tourist office provides a complete list of all bed and breakfast outfits in town, but it's simply that: a list of all the B&Bs in alphabetical order and arbitrarily divided between 358 "Rental room-B&B" properties (mostly slightly larger true B&Bs) and 113 "Non-professional rental room-B&B" places (largely one– or two-room affittacamere, or rental room outfits).

The info on each provided is pretty basic: name, address, telephone, website, number of rooms, basic amenities, sometimes the price and occasionally a photograph. That's it. A great resource, but one that requires a lot of legwork to use, since you have to click on each entry individually to find out more.

If you want more intel to go on, try using a private booking site that will provide descriptions, user reviews, photographs, and more information to help you make a choice.

Best sites for booking B&Bs in Italy

• Booking.com (www.booking.com) - A general booking site, and one of the few that includes B&Bs—about 195 in Florence (filed variously under the categories of "Bed and Breakfast and "Guesthouse").
• Hotels.com (www.hotels.com)- Another generalist booking site based in Italy with a huge representation of B&Bs—about 180 in Florence (in addition to hotels, apartments, and other options).
• BedandBreakfast.com (www.bedandbreakfast.com) - Massive site and database with thousands of choices all across Italy, including around 80 in Florence.
• Airbnb.com (www.airbnb.com) - Network of both official and unofficial B&Bs, homestays, and apartment and house rentals, including 76 B&Bs in Florence. Its rates are among the lowest around, charging anywhere from $15 to $250 per night (a handful charge more).
• Bed-and-Breakfast.it (www.bed-and-breakfast.it) - Probably the biggest and best of the huge, national services, with more than 10,000 B&Bs across Italy.
• Bed & Breakfast Italia (www.bbitalia.it) - Another major nationwide service, with more than 1,000 members and three quality categories where prices range from €44 to €116 ($52 to $137).
• Generalist booking sites - The following sites have limited listings in Italy (from a few dozen to a few hundred total), but you never know where you'll find the perfect place, so feel free to sift through the offerings: www.innsite.com, www.karenbrown.com, www.bbonline.com, www.1bbweb.com.

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