Firenze with Leonardo

special notices for summer 2025

very often some spam filter send in the spam folder my replies, so if within a few hours you have not received my reply, better you look in the spam folder. - If you are so strict not to accept my email in your mailbox how can I be accepting you in person in my home?

On some days you will see a hourglass symbol with a date nearby: it means that I have unconfirmed plans for that days that could lead me far from home so until the specified date cannot give a firm confirm; on the other way dates more than 4 weeks away could not appear, feel free to ask but do not expect to have always immediate confirm for such dates.

About last minute requests: If you ask for staying here less than 4 days in advance I expect you are ready to answer to my answer quickly. After 4 hours from my reply without acknowledgement I will assume you could have changed your plans and so would not reserve space; If your request is for the same day this limit is just one hour. Keep phone on that is some cases is possible I will call you. I DO NOT USE WHATSAPP or other similar products so only numbers that I can call with a normal phone call and that are active. (if you miss the deadline call me immediately, usually [that is if I do not have a waiting list] there are no problem even for a late reply of a few hours)

In general every day is "omnivore day" so you will be free to cook what you prefer the day it will be your turn to cook but the other days leave complete freedom to the one[s] that will have their cooking turn; not eating what has been prepared for you, here is considered rude both toward the cook and toward the host; asking someone to cook something different that what had expected to cook is easily leading to get unhealty meals.

If you are a group of 4 or more -up to 9- please read the chapter about groups, even if in the day you arrive do not appear enough free places.
Pease note that for requests less than 48 hours before arrival, maximum size of a new group is 4.

Due to maintenance works scattered all around in the area of Firenze, at least until next summer, public transportation in this area is less reliable and more subject to changes than usual.
For this reason, unless you are using your own means of transportation for all the way to my home, the exact travel plan to arrive here will be a major point on the decision to accept you or another group but also it will lead to restart the process of acceptance in case, for any reason, you change one or more of the details of arrival trip.
please note that times and itineraries on googlemaps and many other travel assistance services could be not been updated for these changes that often last just a couple of days.

If you arrived here it is because you wanted to come in my home.
We say "patti chiari amicizia lunga" (clear pacts, long lasting friendship), so read carefully:

When can I host you ? home

How much time can I host you ?

How can you improve the chances to be my guest ? home

Normally I will confirm once we have had an e-mail exchange and all personal informations; according the period of the year I may have one to four rooms available for guests.
Only two have single beds. So, if you are more than one person, when requesting, tell me if you prefer single or double beds. If you say that is just a preference for single or double, but not a constraint, this would help a lot.
In case your group, of an even number of people, asks only single beds, tell me if you accept to share the big room, that has three single beds, with other guests, or to be split in two different rooms.

In your request please state clearly the exact date (and where possible approximate time and mean of transportation used) you expect to arrive, and also date and time when you plan to leave.
Include also a list with the complete names and e-mail of all the people in your party, as well at least one working GSM/LTE phone number that I can use to call you while arriving and. -very important- an indication if some of you have dietary constraints.
I will consider the request complete only when I will have all these informations

"dates are flexible" does mean that in case I had no availability in the day[s] you ask, rather than declining, I may offer you an option to shift dates, not that you reserve you the right to change dates last minute!.
Once accepted, the dates become fixed.
I expect that, unless differently specified, you reply after my confirm message no later than 2 days, if arrival date is more than 2 week apart, 24 hours in the other cases but within 3 hours if request were sent less than 48 hours before arrival (keep phone on, if last minute I may directly call you)
Note that if you ask to change the dates after I have confirmed, not necessarily means that you will still be accepted.

What if we are a large group (or a family)? home

I can host even groups of 5 or more people, up to 9: since I am one of the few ones in my town that is able to host such a large group, to give them more chances I may also accept requests for dates more than 5 weeks ahead, up to a reasonable future.
For groups of 4 or more usually I can carve out two more places when availability in the calendar says 1 or 2 less than the required number. please note that from 11 may to 10 june this possibility is available only, for up to 4 additional places when the available places are exactly 5 and for a group of 5 or 6 if available ones are only 4, if there is no note near the date
about last minute requests: I cannot accept less than 36 hours in advance requests from groups of 5 or more; smaller ones can try also last minute (but not after 11:00 of day of arrival); on certain days, also, I might restrict acceptance to big groups only it they arrive at a time much earlier than the usual 20:45 limit.
(but see also notes on availability after the general availability calendar at beginning).

Note about families: a family is defined as a group of two or more people when there is at least one person that is a parent of another one in the group. I will host families so defined only if at least one of following conditions is true:
a. at least one of the person among parents or kids has been my guest before, or I have been their guest;
or
b. at least one of the parents and at least one of their kids has (proved by references) had at least one experience as a guest (not by the same person) somewhere out of their home country;
or
c. cumulatively in the group there are at least 6 previous experiences with at least two as host and two as guest.
If in your group you have kids under 14 please read the informations for this case.

What can I offer ? home

I am in east part of town, about 20 minutes by transit to the historical center (or 3 km walking or cycling)
click here to visualize a map of the area

In Italia communal meal with guests is an institution, and many people come to my house also for the "kitchen sharing"; so your host will expect its guests to share at least one main meal together, the day they arrive, or two if they stay more than one night.
Dinner is usually at 21:10.
More details on meal sharing HERE

Who cook on a certain day has the right to decide what to cook.
So in general assume it is omnivore diet.
If you stay three or more days and expect one evening not being here for dinner, please tell it at time of sending the request, or at least three days before arrival.
There are more or less ~~often~~rarely some vegetarian friendly days, listed in the general availability calendar, pv or VF, when vegetarian people may ask -at time of request- to have vegetarian food, while in all the other days who will cook has the right to decide what to cook.
Since if you are vegetarian often the number of vegetarian friendly days are in certain months too few, I might give you some extra days, as long you arrive on a day when there are no other guest that has to cook or to whom i could have promised some local food. This happeens when you see 7 free places AND the day is NOT tagged with 🌙 nor ✝.
Remember that in Italy «vegetarian» is one that eats eggs and cheese and drinks wine and beer, but do not eat any kind of meat, including seafood. see for informations about that.

Breakfast is around 08:40 (but in Italia you are not required to attend, neither expect that someone prepares for you)

Do not expect that I will take you around to visit the city unless you have some specific interests (but -if weather allows- we can easily organize excursions in the nature around);
if you write me in advance telling me your interests I can however give you some suggestions or prepare a thematic itinerary.
please note that due to (long term) roadworks, from february 2021 the stop for buses arriving from city center has been moved 750 m far from here (I have not updated the map on this site since situation could have changes almost every month until summer 2026).

House policy says that when there is no people of the family, even the guests are out. In general I do not leave home early, at least not before 9:30; just on some days it is possible that I leave earlier, but these would be marked in the calendar with 🕖; unless differently arranged do not expect I be back home until 19:20.
In general I ask guests to leave the room free, on the day they leave, no later than 8:20, to give time to clean it. If it is not a day I leave more or less early you may stay longer, but if you leave after 8:20 you are expecteded to do a complete cleaning of the room before leaving. .

Free internet access. In case you need to use it after you leave my house, it is accessible also from the benches on the park in front ot the house.

If you have bicycles you can use my garage, but ask me at time of request or at least 36 hours before arrival, same notice in advance if you need space in the fridge, need to do laundry or need to use kitchen to prepare your breakfast.

What i am asking you ? home

Some people complained that I had too many rules: I wrote the rules here, so you can decide if they are reasonable for you and then send me a request or not.

Call me using your phone to confirm arrival 3-4 days in advance, including your estimated time of arrival, if you don't not only I cannot help with logistics, but I will cancel your request.
Please do not use other ways to confirm than voice calls since sometimes certain phones do not work correctly with SMS (sometimes it is also a question of phone_model-operator-installed_software triplet!).
if you plan not to stay with me for dinner on one of the evenings, please tell me at least 3 full days in advance. (preparation of certains typical food, certain times spans on more days and I don't want to throw away food, also accept that if you were the only guest and I had better options in the late evening I could say "no dinner: no bed").
for last minute requests of course people should be ready to get what has been prepared, so if you have alimentary constraints tell me when you send the first request, so i know if yu will be "compatible" or not with the other people present.
We will share expenses for food; people that stay more than one day is expected to cook at least one day.
In that case think about a recipe that you know you can prepare, and take a list of ingredients with quantities (by mass), this would help in buying the right quantity and adapt according the number of people that evening, also it is possible I already had ready most of the ingredients.
If you want to change the day or time of arrival, or change way of transportation expect to renegotiate availability
do not smoke in the house, nor in the balcony
The guests have one bathroom all for them, so cleaning is left to them; keep it clean, for the people that come after you.
do not contaminate recycle bins (or you have to clean it too)
do not take anything out of kitchen (glasses can be get lost or broken in strange places, food could have been a key ingredient for next dinner)
if you prepare your own breakfast: you must ask me before 21:30 of previous day, telling which tools you need; kitchen have to left free after 08:40 and dining room after 09:00 (tea and coffee facilities are in the dining room)
do not open the window in the dining room unless you remain inside that room ready to close it. (if there is just a bit of wind current will be strong and internal doors can slam and be damaged)

to get a quicker reply - Last minute requests home

When you send a request or reply to a last minute invitation, to be sure to get a quick reply always send an email to the address leo5ucc@trail.it specifying there your username and adding the e-mail addresses of all other travelmates, and expecially your cell phone number, caring that my reply could arrive from a different email address, or a different phone number, so check that you accidentally (or voluntarily) had not set your spam filter to ignore messages, or your phone not to ring from unknows callers.
When you send arrival and leaving dates, unless differently written, I assume that you arrive at my home between 19:50 and 20:20 on the arrival day, and leave between 07:00 and 08:30 on departure date (too many people set as end day the last night, so actually end requesting a day less than they expect).

If you send a request very close to arrival date remember to give answers, in your request, to the questions about the kind of bed that you prefer, the time you plan to arrive and leave and if you have food intolerances. This would help to know immediately if there are problem or on the other side accept immediately.

I will try to reply to your request in the shortest time possible, but since often I receive more requests than I can accommodate (Firenze has a lot of people coming ...) I have to ask also you to be quick in replying, so to be helpful to as many people is possible.
So, if your request is for more than 8 days in advance, I can wait for your reply even 24 hours, but if you require hospitality in short advance, I ask you to reply within a few hours, in general I will wait one eight of the time remaining to your arrival (1 to 6 in the night is neutralized).
If I will not receive an answer within that time and have other requests I will consider it as cancelled.
If you expect not to have internet access for some time please post in your message a note about when you will be able to read and reply to the message.
If I think we need a quicker turnaround in replies, I will call you in voice, so please keep the phone on: sometimes I need some immediate clarification, or I had problem replying by e-mail.

I am not picky if any person in the group does not have a personal profile on an hospex community, but I ask as a minimum that the person that makes the request indicate name and personal contact [email address], for each one in the group, so i can reply individually and ask further informations.
In particular I ask that all the people in the group share a common language with me. I can make an exception about this rule only if there is just 1 person not sharing my -or the other guests'- languages, but at least two people able to translate.

If you are one of the people that do not want to have a cellphone, or do not want to give to other people their personal number you can buy a SIM just for the trip!, otherwise I will be usually unable to host you, expecially on last minute or when you cannot adjust your arrival time to my movements. If there is more then one group for dinner not knowing where they are when they are late is not nice. Read here for more explainations

Some things you should know (even if you do not come at my home). home

When planning a visit to Firenze remember these things:

Some bus operators sell tickets to Firenze offering three different stations: Piazzale Montelungo, Villa Costanza, Guidoni T2 and via Santa Caterina. While Piazzale Montelungo and Santa Caterina are in the center, adjacent to SMN station, Villa Costanza is NOT in Firenze, but in Scandicci at 8 km SW from city center. There is between 04:30 and 23:45 a direct tram line to Firenze center, but this takes at least 25 minutes (plus time to buy tickets and wait departure). (and I live 4 km E of city center) GuidoniT2 is still in the city but distance (in time) is more or less the same than villa Costanza.

If you expect to arrive from Bologna and Venezia or go to such cities after Firenze know that on sunday afternoon and often on friday it is extremely common that some fast train services to/from that direction be sold-out (and regional service is not present in many weekends). I recommend to buy such tickets at least 3 days in advance to avoid surprises.

If you have not found cheap enough train select "solo regionali", that have a lower base fare, in this case ticket should be bought only on same day (there are no reservations), hovewer on certain days it is possible there are none of such trains, so check before online if you may buy a ticket for such day. If still the fare looks high consider the offer "Italia in tour" that does not appear when you select a trip, but it is a pass, that you can buy in "offerte regionali" section, that for 35 EUR allow you three consecutive days of travel on regional trains (including services to FCO airport) or 59 EUR for 5 days. These tickets must be bought on the day before the first trip. ].

On public holydays (in 2025 they are 1/1 6/1 21/4 25/4 1/5 2/6 24/6 15/8 1/11 8/11 25/11 26/11) public transit services from my area start at 0532 october to may and 06:00 june to semptember (while on weekdays at 510, 520 on saturday), so take it in account if you have a long distance services leaving from a distant terminal early in the morning.

bus tickets must be bought before boarding. it can be paid on board only with contactless credit card of VI/MC/AX circuits
Train ticket vending machines usually accept only credit or debit cards, these cards must have a chip and a 4 to 6 figure PIN. there are around some cards that does not requires a pin, and these will not be accepted

museums: check always the opening days on their sites.
You may buy also a combined ticket including Uffizi, Palazzo pitti, Boboli, giardino Bardini, museo Archeologico and Opificio delle Pietre Dure; in any case Uffizi MUST be the first visit and pass price includes reservation.
Even single tickets to Uffizi are valid to visit (within 3 days) opificio delle pietre dure and Museo archeologico; the same option is available to visit Giardino Bardini after Boboli (on the same day)
People age 18 to 24 (citizen of EU plus ch,fl,no,uy) pay 2 euro for entrance at each museum (this fare is valid also for Bargello and San Marco).

page generated on 2025-07-05