Monday 16 December 2013

Florence Hotels via Wedding Planner

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I can't believe we're halfway through December! Suddenly April 23rd doesn't seem that far away!

Our wedding planner (the wonderful Valentina) has some rooms on hold at a few hotels that will suit a variety of budgets. The hold can only remain for another few days.

The details are below. If you want to book one of the rooms, please let either myself or Pat know (or both of us at pat.anth.wedding@gmail.com) and we can hook you up with Valentina.

Please note their is a big conference in town the same week, and obviously Easter right before, so booking sooner than later may be best.

Love,
Anth & Pat xx


From Valentina (* = number of stars):


HOTELS IN FLORENCE
This is the company I usually work with in town as it offers 4 hotels in the city centre (all one next to the other) at different prices, in the very central position of Piazza Santa Maria Novella. 
I noted the max number of rooms available per hotel as there is a big congress in town on the same dates!!!

Company Why The Best Hotels www.wtbhotels.com:

Outside the centre:
Grand Hotel Villa Cora*****L www.villacora.it (offer to follow)

On Santa Maria Novella square:
Hotel Santa Maria Novella**** www.hotelsantamarianovella.it 
Hotel L´Orologio**** www.hotelorologioflorence.com
Hotel Rosso23*** www.hotelrosso23.com
Hotel Universo*** www.hoteluniversofirenze.it


Dates: April 22nd for 2 or 3 nights

HOTEL ROSSO 23 ***   MAX NR. 7 ROOMS 
Double room or single room Euro 110.00 room/night + city tax Euro 3 per person per night
These rates include buffet breakfast and taxes. 

HOTEL UNIVERSO ***   MAX NR. 5 ROOMS
Double room or single room Euro 100.00 room/night + city tax Euro 3 per person per night
These rates include buffet breakfast and taxes. 

HOTEL SANTA MARIA NOVELLA ****   MAX NR 8 ROOMS
Double room for single use Euro 215.00 room/night + city tax Euro 4 per person per night
Double room  Euro 245.00 room/night + city tax Euro 4 per person per night
These rates include buffet breakfast and taxes. 

HOTEL L’OROLOGIO ****   MAX NR 5 ROOMS
Double room for single use Euro 215.00 room/night + city tax Euro 4 per person per night
Double room  Euro 245.00 room/night + city tax Euro 4 per person per night

These rates include buffet breakfast and taxes. 






Friday 8 November 2013

Flights from Australia/Outside the EU!

Hi All,

Many of you have already arranged flights, but for those that haven't I thought the below might be helpful:

1) Qantas/Emirates has a sale on right now : $1558 return to Milan.

2) Singapore has flights for $1530

3) Etihad/Virgin has flights for $1650

For those who haven't been to Italy before, don't try to fly directly into Florence. In the scheme of things it is a regional city, and it will cost you a fortune to fly there from outside the EU.

Rome is 1h30m by train, Milan is 1h40 min. And the train fares are inexpensive. If coming from outside the EU try and pick either of these cities as your Italian point of entry.

If you have time, and feel like exploring, a better option would be to fly into London or Frankfurt. They are both big hubs and have even more competitive prices (from a greater variety of airlines).

Once you've booked your flights, please add your details to our guest spreadsheet!

As ever we are happy to help!!

Pat & Anth

Saturday 2 November 2013

Travel Co-ordination

Since everyone's travelling in from somewhere, we thought it would be handy for all of you to have an idea of who's travelling from where and when.  This should help some of you co-ordinate your trips and might make it a better experience all round to know where you are all going to be.

To help with this we've created a document where you can add your travel details for fellow travellers to see.  You can add as little or as much information as you'd like, just be careful not to delete anyone else's info!

Below is a link to the document, hope it helps

Travel Spreadsheet 

If you've got any questions about this, or if you think there's extra information that would be useful, just put it in the comments section of this blog post.

Travelling With Little 'uns

We know a few of you are travelling with your bubs and making a family holiday of it.  For those of you who are, and have questions, issues etc., we've found the link to a great site all about travelling with kids.  Hope you find it useful...

http://havebabywilltravel.com/

If any of you experienced travellers with kids have additional tips, I"m sure they'll be much appreciated.  Just add a comment to the bottom of this blog post

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Accommodation

Hello All!

Some of you have been asking about accommodation in Florence.

You have many, many options!

If you've never been before, Florence is a small city, so as long as you are within the city centre you'll be pretty close to everyone else!

One
Some of our guests have booked into this hotel. They have stayed there several times before & really recommend it:

http://www.hotelpalazzodalborgo.it/  

Two
Pat & I are also big fans of 'AirBnB'. We have used this service several times in different countries, and always had a great experience. If you have other friends who you'd be interested in sharing accommodation with, this could be a fantastic option:

https://www.airbnb.com.au/

Three
And finally, our wedding planner has several options at a special discounted rate for our guests.

They are at a various price points, and the 4 on Santa Maria Novella are basically next door to one another.

If any of them take your fancy let us know & we will get the planner to make the booking (so you get the better rate).


Outside the centre:
Grand Hotel Villa Cora*****L www.villacora.it (offer to follow)

On Santa Maria Novella square:
Hotel Santa Maria Novella**** www.hotelsantamarianovella.it 
Hotel L´Orologio**** www.hotelorologioflorence.com
Hotel Rosso23*** www.hotelrosso23.com
Hotel Universo*** www.hoteluniversofirenze.it


Dates: April 22nd for 2 or 3 nights

HOTEL ROSSO 23 ***   MAX NR. 7 ROOMS 
Double room or single room Euro 110.00 room/night + city tax Euro 3 per person per night
These rates include buffet breakfast and taxes. 

HOTEL UNIVERSO ***   MAX NR. 5 ROOMS
Double room or single room Euro 100.00 room/night + city tax Euro 3 per person per night
These rates include buffet breakfast and taxes. 

HOTEL SANTA MARIA NOVELLA ****   MAX NR 8 ROOMS
Double room for single use Euro 215.00 room/night + city tax Euro 4 per person per night
Double room  Euro 245.00 room/night + city tax Euro 4 per person per night
These rates include buffet breakfast and taxes. 

HOTEL L’OROLOGIO ****   MAX NR 5 ROOMS
Double room for single use Euro 215.00 room/night + city tax Euro 4 per person per night
Double room  Euro 245.00 room/night + city tax Euro 4 per person per night
These rates include buffet breakfast and taxes. 


Monday 7 October 2013

Invitations Sent!

Hi Everyone,

You should all be receiving your e-vites today!

As you can see, the festivities will be held over 2 days.

The traditional Ghanaian ceremony will be held on Tuesday the 22nd of April, and will be followed by dinner at a local restaurant in Florence, the exact location will be confirmed closer to the time.

The wedding itself is a civil ceremony and will take place in Sala Rossa, or Red Room, in the Palazzo Vecchio at 11:30am. It will run for around 30 minutes.

We will have something light afterwards : champagne & small canapes.

You then have the rest of the day to yourselves! Take in the sights, or take a nap! Its totally up to you.

We will then regroup at 5:45pm and be transported to the Villa di Maiano which is 15 minutes up into the Hills above Florence for the Black Tie reception at 6pm.

A & P

Sunday 29 September 2013

Decision made: it is gonna be an Italian Wedding!



We have decided on Tuscany, Italy!

It was a very tough choice, because we are very aware that people will have to travel varying distances. But it is where we think we will have the wedding we really want, with the people we love.

We haven't narrowed down the location or exact date yet, but it will be in April on either the 22nd, 23rd or 24th.

We hope this narrows the burden on some friends as the Easter weekend is the 19th & 21st, and Anzac day is Friday the 25th. So for those mindful of annual leave balances its 3 days leave for a 10 day holiday.

Etihad has great fares to Milan for $1468 at the moment for those keen to lock in a cheap fare whilst they are on sale: check out http://www.kayak.com.au thats where we saw some great rates.

Don't fly direct into Florence : it costs much more as it isn't a hub. Milan or Rome are much cheaper, and then you can use the trains to get to Tuscany.

Can't believe we've finally kicked this all off!