Looking for hotel, restaurant tips for Feb MR/vacation in central Italy (Rome, Tuscany, etc) without kids.

I stayed at the Westin Excelsior in Florence and had a great time. I would also recommend visiting volterra, siena, and Pienza especially to taste the wonderful Peccorino cheese.

You will find more information than you can digest on slowtrav.com. It is a comprehensive, polite board of Italian travelers. Enjoy!

I am somewhat adventurous but could have used a guide at many of the historical sites in Rome such as the Forum. In Rome I liked the Hotel Villa San Pio that is recommended on the Fodors site. In Florence, consider staying in the hilltown Fielsole which overlooks Florence and is accessible local bus. Florence is rather busy and this may be more peaceful. Whatever you do, don't take a car into the city--this is 10X worse than driving in say NYC. If you rent a car, drop it off at the airport location. The train is really the best way to go. The countryside in Chianti is beautiful and worth a detour. A nice way to do this is by hot air ballloon. Pisa is a bit overrated. If you go, get tickets for the tower in advance. If you show up without tickets, you might be able to buy tickets but the tickets are timed and you will have to wait a long time--we got there at noon and the earliest ticket available was 5pm.

Good luck on your search.

Now that we have a moderator here, how about moving these types of threads to the appropriate forums?