This is where we always stay – not a B&B at all. This is just a smaller sized hotel.
And Frank Peters is sometimes working the desk — he is THE BEST English speaking guide in Florence. You should book him for at least 1/2 day. The original owner of the Morandi was one of the British women featured in the movie Breakfast with Mussolini. She was also actually in the movie as well.
spent 5 days at this wonderful budget hotel across form the medici museum and a block for the David and the central market - Owned by Somalian/italians who speak perfect english. Great service and easy to get anywhere
Loved the Lungarno. Room was top floor overlooking the Pitti Palace, opposite side of Arno River. Also, really loved the location of the hotel on opposite bank of the river. The hotel staff are wonderful, and the concierge was extremely helpful setting up anything and everything we ever asked.
Howard
I love this hotel. Love it, love it, love it. We’ve stayed there twice. A couple blocks from the Duomo, Uffizi, Academe, Palazzo Vecchio, all the stuff. Get a room overlooking the courtyard and awake every morning to birds singing and church bells ringing.
I know you’re not looking for B&B, but for anyone else reading, we stayed in a very nice one, quite private and quiet:
Panella’s Residence
Via della Pergola nr 42
50121 FIRENZE (ITALIA)
http://www.panellaresidence.com
We had several nice meals, though didn’t go to any of the “high end” places. The one restaurant I would strongly recommend is La Pentola dell’Oro: http://www.lapentoladelloro.it
Not particularly fancy, but really interesting and local food. The chef/owner was already up there in age (70s I think) when we were there in 2007, but from tripadvisor it looks like the place is still in business and doing well. I would highly recommend it.
Another place we ate that we enjoyed:
Perseus restaurant for Bistecca Fiorentina. Fun place, nothing fancy, good food.
Cantinetta Antinori - for lunch. This is a small restaurant that is part of the famous Antinori winery. Nice food, and you can get their top wines by the glass (not cheap, but very good). We had a fabulous, simple grilled asparagus plate that I can still taste 
While I was searching, I found this site which looks to have pretty good descriptions and recommendations for restaurants
http://www.sallybernstein.com/food/dining_directory/europe/florence.htm
In Florence there are numerous museums. Of course you’ll want to go to Accademia Galleria for Michelangelo’s David. But my favorite was the museum across from the Cathedral, Museo dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. There is a wonderful late Michelangelo there, and then the simply stunning Mary by Donatello. Do not miss it. Uffizi gallery is the most famous, but frankly it is so huge, and takes so much time to get through, plus it is crowded and a very long line if you don’t purchase tickets ahead. I’m glad we did it, but I wouldn’t go back. If you have limited time, do the Cathedral museum for sure, then the Accademia.
My wife and i stayed there a few years ago. We had the same Experience as Mike and Tom. It is on the other side of the Arno near ponte vecchio. Pricing was reasonable at the time but we made reservations well in advance.
Thank you all for the wonderful recommendations. Now I have some work to do!
Think we have narrowed our hotel choices down to Continenale or Pallazzo Vecchietti for our trip in March 2017. Any recent input on the choices or similar hotels?
We loved our stay (some years ago, so YMMV) at Hotel Morandi ( http://www.hotelmorandi.it/en-index.php )
Small, tucked off the main streets but super convenient to everything (Florence is a walker’s dream), reasonably priced, comfortable, and on a very historic street (have a look at the “Hystoric Notes” page on their site!). It is (was) run by a British expat who has lived in Florence for many decades and knows every stone of the place. Very friendly. I would not hesitate to go back
[Edit: I now see that I posted the same thing 2 years ago in this thread. So, there you go. FWIW]
If you are thinking 5 stars I highly reccomend Villa Cora.
Right outside the old town , in a very quiet area. Easy walk to the center and the prices are much lower than other 5 stars