October 5th 2006 (two nights)
110 Euro / night

My boyfriend and I have decided to put this into good/not so good format. We’re both fairly tall, he is 6ft and I’m 5.8” and we’re both 29 years old.

Good:
-Valerie is a great host. She is not the owner but is a great lady, and a wonderful touch of Italian!
-We booked online thru Cross-Pollinate (a hotel booking company for Florence, Venice and Rome – we never had a problem with them). You give a small deposit to secure the room and pay the balance on departure.
-When we got lost and were late to arrive, Valerie had to leave, but she left the key to the Pensione and our room with the restaurant across the lane from her. That was so handy!
-People say that if you don’t get lost driving into Florence than you haven’t truly experienced Florence! It was torture, and we had GPS! Valerie told us that the council is constantly changing the roads, one day a road will be one way and the next it may be another way. There is so much road work happening, one time our GPS told us we could take a turn somewhere, but there was a wall there. Be prepared…and if you can, take a taxi and don’t drive in Florence. The car park attendant was the nicest guy ever! We were practically crying by the time we arrived, but he took our car (when I think they were pretty full) and walked us to our pensione. We were very grateful. Parking cost us 30 Euro per night and we were there for 2/3 nights, so it’s pricey but there is nothing you can do about that.
-She was also very helpful, she made a reservation for us at Café Pitti, a great restaurant near the Mint that was not too expensive, but not budget. We had beautiful Italian food and great atmosphere (they serve truffles which is a traditional way of serving Italian food – I think – but it’s pretty expensive).
-Continental breakfast is available, but not much appealed to me, but they had great coffee.
-Beautiful timber ceilings with beams like you picture a Tuscan house.
-Wardrobes in the room, but there was only one holder for luggage, they should get more in those rooms (after 2 months of lugging around your suitcase, the last thing you want to keep doing is bending down to the ground to get in your bag, it’s nice when there are luggage holders.
-Great location! Quite close to the Museo dell’Opera del Fiore where the beautiful Duomo is with a an unbelievable depiction of heaven and hell which I found comparable to the Sistine Chapel. There is something like 400 stairs to get to it, so be prepared. For us it was completely worth it. I think it’s 300 stairs to the Duomo, but another 100 to get to the top where the view is. And as annoying as it is with people shimmying past you to get down whilst you’re climbing and you have to stop at a few times because there are so many people (beside the fact that you’re out-of-breath), we thought the view was totally worth it. All the lovely orange roof tops of the houses in Florence, it was great! However, if you’re claustrophobic, I would not attempt to go the view, getting to the Duomo would be hard enough.
-There is GREAT shopping in Florence. Seriously, be prepared, clothes and shoes are plentiful. Ladies, if you hold off on shopping somewhere else and wait till you get to Florence, I guarantee you, you won’t be disappointed! I don’t think clothes and shoes were that much more expensive than anywhere else, but the Italians really know how to shop!
-We felt secure (two keys to get into pensione and one key to get in our room).
- Nice quaint laneway outside the B&B. There were street performers one night, but when they were asked to leave, they left peacefully.
- Taxi's can get down this street no problem...doesn't matter how narrow a street is in Florence - it's big enough for a car!

Not so Good:
-This pensione has no lift (elevator) and a lot of stairs, if you have heavy luggage, think twice. Once you get there it’s never that bad, but you should be aware.
-The rooms were a decent size, but they should have given some room to the bathroom! It was minute! The sink was right over the toilet.

I would stay here again, but I wouldn’t be looking forward to the bathroom.

Domenico was very nice and also very helpful, the location was fabulous and there was a very good restaurant right out the front door of the B&B. The room for European standards was fine it seemed a little small for four adults. The washroom was small. It was very clean. Did not notice any noise from outside but we also had the A/C on quite a bit. Breakfast was adequate cappucino very good. Overall we would definitely stay there again.

Great B&B beautifully restored and updated on the second floor of a historic building - just doors away from Dante's home. Our room overlooked a lovely little square with a nice restaurant. The people watching was great. Convenient to everything but not in the hubbub of the most touristy spots. We loved it.

The location can't be beat. right in the heart of the historic district. Mostly it was the owner that made us feel most at home. He chatted with us and answered all of our little questions, recommended a couple nice restaurants, and all in all made us feel more comfortable for our short 2 day stay in this lovely city. The rooms were very comfortable, if a little bit dark and the bathroom was teeny but super clean. the hot water was great. The breakfast was not overly impressive, but the coffee was good, and it was certainly enough to hold us over till lunch. We also bought some gorgeous handpainted pottery from a lady just a couple doors down. all and all a great time!