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Outside the town walls (take buses 59, 60, 3 or navetta 2). A mix of dorms and family rooms, some with private bathroom.

Located in an old convent, this hostel has 80 beds in rooms for two, four, six or eight people. The management arranges visits to local Etruscan sites. Midnight curfew.

Though a 20-minute ride from the centre (bus 17B), you can’t get lodging in a 16th-century villa any cheaper. Mostly dorms, though 2- and 3-person family rooms are available. The wooded grounds host a campground.

A family-run 17th-century hotel. Some rooms retain their frescoes, and those at the back are quiet and offer views over the hotel’s garden.

Pistoia has a dearth of decent hotels, but this modern place with many amenities is a good start. It’s got a great location, too, halfway between the train station and the Duomo.

Wonderfully old-fashioned, its huge rooms stuffed with a mix of antiques and classic 1950s and 60s furnishings. Run by a Welsh ex-pat.

Little has changed in this pensione for over 120 years, save the addition of firm beds and new furnishings. The larger rooms overlooking café-lined Piazza della Repubblica are best. The Abbolafaio brothers’ welcome is warm, and they have two other hotels in town (one near the station, the other on the Arno), so are likely to have room.

The archetypal Florentine pensione of terracotta-floored rooms and wide halls cluttered with worn antiques and overstuffed easy chairs. The airy top-floor loggia looks out over Piazza Santo Spirito. A place for Romantics.

In a centre plagued by either overpriced or grotty hotels, tiny Etruria stands proud. Its immaculate rooms with contemporary decor are great value, and the only drawback is the 12:30am curfew. Book early; there are only 13 rooms.

Paolo is the friendliest hotelier in town, keeping his little jewel of an inn shipshape. All but two of the smallish but nicely furnished rooms are on the front, and if you lean out you can see the Romanesque façade of San Michele.