De' Lanzi, Florence

On August 2009, my husband and I went to Florence with 2 other friends. We flew with Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Florence Amerigo Vespucci Airport, and it took us about an hour to get there. The air ticket was about £80 per person which is quite reasonable and not too expensive. When we arrived, we went straight to the bus station to catch the bus to Santa Maria Novella train station. The cost of the ticket was EUR4.50 per person, which is cheaper to take a taxi to town.

Getting there

When we arrived into the train station, we took our suitcase and started walking towards the hotel. The hotel is located in the city centre which is right next to the Duomo. We took about 10 to 15 minutes to get to the hotel under 36°C. It wasn’t a pleasant at all, but we made it to the hotel.

Arrival

When we arrived we had to get a lift to the first floor to the reception area. The lady at the check-in desk was really nice and the check-in process took about 5 minutes, but we had to leave our passports at the reception for 15 minutes. So we went straight to our room to get freshen up and then went back to the reception to get our passports back.

The room

When we entered our room it was quite hot because the individually controlled air-conditioning was switched off, so we quickly switched it on and the room became cooler after a short while. The room has high ceiling and it is equipped with a double bed, a desk with the small television on top, a chair, a mirror in the room, a wardrobe, a suitcase rack, telephone, windows that can be opened and 2 bedside tables and lamps. The furniture was quite dated, but it is a 3 star hotel so we can’t expect too much. At least the mattress was comfortable enough to sleep on and the room was clean.

The bathroom

The bathroom was also clean and the size is okay. The bathroom is equipped with a washbasin, a shower cubicle, towel railing, a mirror, a hair dryer and a toilet. The shower facility was quite good and the water pressure was quite nice and strong.

The price and breakfast

The price of the room per night is £58.59 and we stayed there for 3 nights. The price of the room also included the buffet breakfast (from 7.30 to 10.30am) for 2. The breakfast wasn’t as good as we thought. They had a few slices of ham, cheese, 2 choices of juice (blood orange or pineapple), 1 type of cereal, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, croissants (plain, with sugar or chocolate) and some biscuits. The ham actually tasted a bit sour and weird and the blood orange juice tasted too diluted. The best thing was the hot chocolate and it actually tasted really good.

The location

The location of the hotel couldn’t be any better than what we had. It was just a minute walk from the hotel. We can actually see a bit of the Duomo (Florence Cathedral) from our hotel window. It can be a bit noisy when you are staying that close to the Duomo, because the church bells started ringing at 7 o’clock every morning. But in a way it’s okay, because it acted as an alarm clock.

Florence is actually really small and we walked everywhere on foot and this hotel really have the great advantage.

Check-out

It was really easy. We just gave our key back at the reception, because the room charges were all paid in advance.

Staffs

The staffs are really friendly and nice. You can ask them for a map of the city and any recommendations for restaurants and places to visit.

Tips

For quieter options, you can try to ask for the rooms which are not facing the Duomo.
Don’t forget to try the Italian ice-cream (gelato) while you are there! The best flavour is mango, melon and coffee.

Recommendation

Overall we really enjoyed our stay at the hotel and the location is the best! I would highly recommend any type of tourist to stay here.