Email communication w/the hotel was super fast and efficient.
Jessica checked us in, she was super sweet and friendly girl. She also saw us with our hydroflasks and let us know that the bar could re-fill our waters at no charge :) that was awesome! we refilled all the time and with ice and we were there for 6 days.
We celebrated our wedding anniversary and the staff was super kind in surprising us with REAL rose petals in our room and a bottle of Chianti wine, and a kind hand written note. It was super romantic! I love when hotels do things like this for their guests. Our room was spacious and beautiful!
LOCATION: couldn't be any better and the main reason why we picked this hotel! Highly recommend! We were within walking distance of the Duomo, about 10-12 minute walk to the Florence train station which also just happened to be the meet up spot for a couple of our tours, so that was a nice surprise! Also within walking distance of the famous Ponte Vecchio (Vecchio Bridge). We must've crossed it a dozen times during our stay.
We never needed to take public transportation as everything was walkable. We did take a bus just for fun b/c it looked so cute and small!
FOOD: We did breakfast 1 of the mornings at like 25 euros/person but the guy was nice and gave it to us for 22 euros b/c I guess we booked it the day before or i was asking too many questions about their breakfast lol. It was a buffet spread and quite generous. If you're not in a rush in the mornings, this is a nice option. You can dine indoors at the hotel or at their sister building around the corner that has 1. a rooftop! 2. indoor seating with windows, and more spacious.
It was a bit chilly that morning so we went to the sister bldg and did option 2. It was calm and relaxing. Our room was replenished daily with a water (the fancy one in glass).
About a block from the hotel, there was a large market space during the day for leather goods. and at night, that area converted into a music scene b/c of the dome thing that has nice acoustics. You could hear the beautiful music from the hotel if you opened your window at night. It was kind of our daily evening thing after dinner to stroll by there and watch the live music that always drew a crowd! We saw different groups every evening. it was SO nice!!!
My only thing is on our last night, I asked the front desk girl if she could book us a taxi for the next morning at 630AM to take us to the airport. She wasn't the friendliest when we'd see her, and I'd think, oh great..she's there...whenever I saw her.
She didn't want to book it for us and insisted that we could just ask her colleague in the morning to call a taxi for us. I didn't like this b/c I didn't know how long it'd take for a taxi to arrive at 630AM!! I was like, well I know the time we want to leave, why can't you just leave your colleague a message during your shift change to let her know we need a taxi here at 630AM. Why do I have to call downstairs?
She was grumpy about it and insisted a pre-booking wasn't needed, and that the taxi would come quick. I was like, at 630AM???? she said yes.
Also, I asked her if the taxi ran a meter or if it was a flat rate to the airport. She DIDN'T KNOW! But she said it would range from 30-35 euros. So that made me think ok meter.
The taxi did arrive quickly and we got in, and noticed the meter running, everything was fine, but then a couple minutes in, he turned it off. and that's when I asked him about the price, and he said 33 euros flat to the airport.
Upon arrival at the airport, we saw a couple who had also checked out as the same time as us and they said their driver charged them 40 euros.
So I would double check before you get in if it's flat or meter.
Overall, if I visit Florence again, I would stay here! read more