Italy: Florence

This is a city where you should stay in the center of all the sites.  Otherwise you will be hoofing it, which is doubly tiring on a hot summer day, and triply aggravating on a day where the workers decide to strike.  Transportation workers love to strike for the day, at the last minute, and who knows how many days after that.  It's a crap shoot, so be prepared and stay in the center, and not in the summer!  If you can manage to get some sort of transportation or feel like some heavy-duty exercising, go to the Piazzale Michelangelo square, which is a beautiful panoramic view of the city.  The bridge you cross is the Ponte Vecchio, where jewelers sell their wares. On top is a secret passageway where the royalty would escape across the Arno River from the Palazzo Vecchio.