Great location and value for money. (Hotel Romagna (Florence, Italy))

Member Name: lm09

Product:	Hotel Romagna (Florence, Italy)
Date:	12/02/09 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A no thrills hotel, but perfect if you just plan to use the room to sleep.

Disadvantages: Very basic shower and washing facilities

Hotel Romagna, Florence

We arrived in Florence after landing at Pisa's Galileo Galilei airport. After a trip round Pisa we caught the train to Florence getting of at the central station, Stazione di Santa Maria Novella. From this station to get to the hotel Romangna is a 5 minute walk across the busy traffic junctions of the Piazza della Statzione and Piazza del Unita Italiana. This then leads you not the Via de Panzani which is where hotel is.

The receptionist was pleasant enough and the formalities was done in around 5 minutes. The main reasons we chose this hotel were firstly location. Having only really one and a half days in Florence our hotel had to be central. Well this hotel could not be more perfect. It is around 100 metres from the Duomo, 100 metres from the Cappelle Miediee and less than a tem minute walk to the Ponto Vecchio and Uffizi. The location couldn't be better.

The other reason we chose the hotel was the cost. Being so central for only fourty Euros as night!!! Amazing. With this cost and the location though something has to give right? Well kind off. I have travel Europe fairly extensively and stayed in hotels and hostels. The quality of the hotel is on a par with a good hostel rather than an average hotel.

The room had a large double bed (a proper double not two singles wedged together) and also a single bed. The bed itself was very comfortable and the sheets and pillows spotless. The rest of the room furniture was very very basic but what do you really need?

Being so central and facing onto the Via Panzani, a busy through road, you have to expect a bit of noise but in fairness to the hotel the thick double glassed windows did really reduce the noise and only the ambulances or high revved vespas really an encroachment.

Ok so the negatives. The bathroom was really basic. The shower was right next to the toliet with no screening so wet weather footwear was required to use the bathroom. The shower itself seemed to ration the hot water on a whim sometimes being so tight that frostbite was a possibility then at other pumped out for a split second lava heated boiled in hell aqua!!! Early on the Sunday though the shower and even sink were set to frostbite mode.

The other downside...the breakfast. Don't get me wrong for the location and price paid I didn't expect silver service and a choice of exotic fruit from round the globe. I did expect more than three types of cereal - no milk, one old but ok coffee machine and half a baggette with what has to be said was the highlight a fine selection of pre-packed jams. Having such a short amount of time in Florence though the time saved on breakfast was gratefully allocated to sight seeing.

So would I recommend staying in the hotel Romagna. Well it depends on which class of people you fit in:-

If you are a.) horrified that when you fly for £20 with Ryanair that you don't get a free drink, newspaper, relaxed check in and find it a horrific was to travel and an absolute injustice then definitely stay away from the Romagna. If though you like me are b.) amazed that Ryanair for £20 can fly you £600 miles return safely and think any of the suffering involved is worth it then you will love the hotel. It is the Ryanair of hotels.
For the price and location it ticks the box.

Summary: Perfect location and nice and cheap. Perfect for a long weekend