Florence: How far away is the hotel from the main attractions and sights of Florence? How much time do your recommend when visiting the Uffizi and the Academia (David) museums? I currently have scheduled the Uffizi at 1:30pm and the Academia at 3:45pm.

However, I've been told that the bus leaves St. Croce Church at about 4:30pm and it's been said that the bus will leave you if you aren't at your departure site at a certain time. If we don't make it back in time to catch the bus back to our hotel, how difficult is it to arrange publice transp. and/or taxi back to our hotel? And what if we want to stay in Florence until later in the evening? Anyone had this experience before? What to do?

Venice: How far away is the hotel from the main attractions and sights of Venice? Thanks for the tip that most demos and such are optional. Do you just tell the tour mgr. that you don't want to do certain things?

Also, it seems like the bus brings you into the majority of the cities from the hotel directly at about 9am on most days. Is there the option to come into a city earlier? Public trans. I assume?

Thanks for all the help.

Contiki 1st timer-Oct. 11th 2008

I had the same times scheduled for Uffizi and Academia when I was on a tour. Uffizi is huge, so you will go through everything pretty quickly. Academia is pretty small. So really, you get in, see David and leave.
I thought I would have to make my own way to the hotel because the bus left from St. Croce Church at 4:15 or 4:30, but I only spent 15 minutes at Academia and had enough time to make it back on time. The hotel is somewhat far. If you were to stay in Florence you can definetly catch a taxi and there is also bus that would drop you off close to the hotel(well, that's if you stay at the same hotel as me when I was on a tour).
Venice hotel was very close to the train. You have to take train to Venice from the hotel. It's at least 30 minute train ride.