We drove from Lake Como to Rome this trip and meandered a bit on our way down. Found Hotel Ariston on the web. Looked like a nice place right on the main square (Plaza Republica) and had a descent rate of 129 Euros for a quadruple room. As we were just crashing for the night, we didn't require a luxury hotel, just beds and a nights rest. The hotel was more like a motel. They was a lift, but it only got you up one floor. Then you walked up the second floor to get to a long dark hallway that led to a room. My children were actually frightened of the neighborhood and the hotel. I would not recommend this place as it's nothing at all like the pictures (location or the hotel itself). There is no hotel parking, and the street parking in front of the hotel was full of transient people drinking beer from bottles and small "gangs" of young people who looked like they were hoping for unlocked cars. The city is pretty drab and the plaza seemed the same.

we booked through the hotel s website inc breakfast. the receptionist was very rude as he said the rate did not include breakfast and we were the only ones to complain. apart from this the hotel is old including rooms, lobby and the rest. apart from this the booking site for the hotel namely offerhotel.it rated the hotel for us. can you believe it? they did not let us rate it, they just put 9 themselves. there must be some agreement between the 2. my advice, stay away from this hotel and definitely do not book directly from its website.

Hotel was undergoing repairs. Rooms were basic, airconditioned and spacious bathroom attached. All in all, you get what you paid for. Lifts were a bit dodgy, you need to switch lifts just to get to the 3rd floor! Breakfast was basic. Staff was helpful, even though some could not really communicate in English.

If you have the misfortune to have to spend a night in Livorno, then you could do a lot worse than this hotel. If you're driving, as we were, then it's easy to find and they offer secure garage parking (which we would strongly recommend). The staff were helpful, the room was clean and adequate. We had to catch an early ferry the next day, but would say that unless you have a similar reason to be there you'd be much better off staying in another town eg Lucca - it's basically a port town with not a lot else going for it, and not very pleasant either apart from the canals and the old fort which are pretty. We had a nice meal in a nearby trattoria, Galileo, but elsewhere we got hassled a lot and most of the town felt pretty dodgy at night - if I'd been on my own I wouldn't have felt at all safe.