We stayed at the Albergo Nazionale in March. The hilltop walled town of Volterra is beautiful with outstanding views and just so Italian. It took us two trains and a bus to get there but as soon as we stepped of the bus there was our hotel. That was great. The hotel is old and the lift was tiny and smelly. The room was big enough and the bathroom is huge and appears to have been recently remodeled. I don't know why they would redo the bath and not the bedroom. The bed was like laying on a rock. and the pillow wasn't any better. The staff was not very friendly. They actually didn't say much of anything to us. But the worst part was, they wouldn't let us use the phone. I had a problem with my credit card and wanted to call the 800 number. The woman at the desk told me I had to go buy an international calling card and use the pay phone. She sent me to the wrong place to buy the card, then when I finally got the card the pay phone was broken. I asked the woman where another pay phone was and she didn't know. My husband got kind of angry with her and she finally called a man in (her boss?) and spoke to him in Italian. They let me use the phone only if they dialed the number. I wouldn't recommend this hotel except for the location and I didn't see another hotel in Volterra. According to Tripadvisor there are a few more, but I don't know where they are. They are not in the main part of town.

We have visited Volterra several times and find it to be a great little hill town--- slightly off the usual tourist path, great views and small enough to be easily maneuvered. It was one of our potential unreserved nights on a ten night trip to Italy. We easily parked in the underground garage (11 euro overnight) and the tourist office suggested the Nazionale for 88 euro a night including breakfast.

Our room was on the 4th floor (elevator building) and we had a small balcony with a great view. The room was basic but comfortable. The staff at check-in were actually pretty okay--although they did not seem to really care that we were there. In other words, they were not rude, but they were not overly helpful. We enjoyed the sunset from our little balcony and had a great dinner at Ombra della Sera.

In the morning the breakfast was beyond pathetic to laughable. At first we could not figure out the coffee situation and the employee in the breakfast area offered no help. Finally we figured out it was some sort of a machine deal with various options but whether you pushed "cappuchino", "americano" or "expresso" you got the same thing---and it was not very good. And the food was truly awful. And the previously mentioned staff person just sort of stood there.

Room check out was by yet another automaton-like person who clearly could have cared less. Bottom line, good view, decent simple room, horrible staff. There must be more welcoming places to stay in this great little town.

We stayed Saturday night: extremely noisy location. We couldn't sleep until 3.30 am!!!!
There's a bar down the street and motorbikes, cars and people shouting and laughing for the whole night. Room was clean, but terrible bed, no frigobar, no AC. Breakfast was ok.
Overall the hotel looks very old. Staff was unfriendly. Location is convenient though being in the center of town.

Great location, but no AC, very noisy rooms and poor breakfast... One of the worst hotels I have experienced in Tuscany.