On the corner of the tiny square of this small, unspoilt Tuscan town stands Anne-Marie and Ueli Bleuler-Staerkle’s hotel; from the back it commands a ‘tremendous view of distant hills and mountains’.

Ever-popular, Simone Simoni’s ‘blissfully quiet’ pensione in a residential area on a hilltop just north-west of Florence represents ‘amazing value’, say its devotees.

With ‘stunning views’ over Florence and the surrounding hills, this family friendly hotel ‘couldn’t be faulted’ by a visitor.

Overlooking the Arno, between the Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi, this ‘very peaceful’ B&B hotel has ‘marvellous views of the duomo’.

Much loved by Guide readers, Rodolfo Gattai’s B&B is in ‘one of Florence’s loveliest squares’, ‘easily reached from all directions.’

In the city centre, this Renaissance palace is now a ‘beautiful and gracious’ hotel with ‘stunning’ lounges filled with antiques and art treasures, and neo-classical drawings and sculpture by Giovanni Duprè, an ancestor of the present owners.

By the Uffizi Gallery, Elisabetta Matucci’s B&B is a 15th-century building in a little pedestrianised street (reached under an ancient arch) off the Piazza della Signoria.

‘Excellently located’, this ‘beautifully kept’ B&B hotel has been run for many years by its owners, the Bechi family. 

Hotel Casci isn’t fancy, but considering the location (150m from Florence Cathedral) the rates are very reasonable and the owners, the Lombardi family, pride themselves on being some of the friendliest hoteliers in town.

This small town (famous for its marble sculptures), with wooded hills behind and sea stretching out in front, is a 30-minute train ride north of Lucca.

The location of this stylish new hotel (it opened in 2015) couldn’t be bettered – it’s 100m from Florence Cathedral and in easy walking distance of the city’s major sights.