FLORENTINE Holiday

NO ONE WANTS TO SPEND a huge part of their vacation waiting in line for tickets, or trying to arrange a tour in a country where they don’t speak the native language.

WeekendinFlorence.com (a.k.a. Weekend a Firenze) has built a business out of catering to such travelers’ needs, and helped boost the profile of the Italian city at the same time.

The site was founded in 1995 by Alessandro and Benedetta Naldi, who got the idea after noticing that most gallery and museum managers were more oriented toward academic pursuits such as research, rather than customer service.