Hi all

I will be in Florence for 3 weeks work and wanted to know what short trips could be realistically done over a weekend? I am from Australia so dont want to waste the 2 weekends in between.

I was thinking of Krakow or Tirana. I have been through a fair amount of Italy so thought it might be good to see something else. Looking at flying out Friday late afternoon/evening and returning Sunday night.

cheers

Have you seen (or will you be seeing during the week) the surrounding areas of Florence (i.e. Tuscany)? If not, then I would suggest you use your two weekends to do just that. Tuscany is truly stunning and worth exploring at leasure.
I sometimes think us FT'ers only think of hopping on a 'plane rather than taking time out on the ground!

I studied aborad in Florence a few summers ago and traveled almost every weekend I was there.

Some of the highlights were:

-Italian Lake Distrcit (and if time southern Switzerland)
-Venice and environs
-Croatia
-Cinque Terre (didn't do this as a weekend trip, but I did do it in 2-2.5 days before arriving in Florence)
-Bolgona (more like a day trip, but still nice)
-Nice/Monaco (a bit further if you take the train, but worth it)
-Milan (could combine on the way back from Lake District as you can go through there)
-Pisa (another day trip, a very short train ride from Florence)
-Istanbul (excellent city to spend a long weekend)

Other destinations that would be reasonable, and in my personal order of preference:

-Barcelona
-Berlin
-Vienna
-Budapest
-Krakow/Warsaw
-Prague

If you're set on flying somewhere checkout Meridiana which has good flights from Florence, and more generally http://www.skyscanner.net, which is great at highlighting/separating flights by city.

Yes

This will be my 3rd trip to Florence and surrounds. Unfortunately I will not have anytime before or after to do much touring.

Cheers