Relais Il Cestello Florence

It wasn't difficult to find the hotel due to its proximity to the arno. The staff was helpful in making museum reservations. The breakfast was nothing out of the ordinary, but enough to get you through the day. The room was dusty and the linen/comforter could have used another cleaning.

Our experience at Hotel Il Relais Cestello was outstanding. The hotel only has about 10 room but was located near our son's apartment (he is studying in Florence), so that influenced our choice initially. The neighborhood is a quiet, more residential area that is not touristy but very friendly. [...] and his staff are wonderful and very helpful. You are within easy walking distance of the train station, all the museums, and right on the Arno. The free breakfast is simple, our room was large and very clean, and other than one night when there was an outdoor concert on the river, very quiet. The hotel does not have a restaurant (there is one of the first floor that we did not try). However, our son took us to several neighborhood restaurants that were outstanding and very friendly to us as tourists: Gusta Pizza, Dante's, and Mama Gina's. Every evening ends with the ringing of the bells of the Cestello Church next door. I suggest stepping out front and listen along the river - quite romantic. We would most definitely stay here again and highly recommend it for anyone wanting not only value, but more of a feel of the real Florence. You could stay downtown or to the north for more money but you won't find a better host or a more relaxed location.

The hotel room was large though quite dated.It is about a 10 minute walk to the ponte vecchio.The breakfast is very ordinary.

Florence has always been my favorite city in Italy. This trip I was thrilled to find a wonderful hotel on the Oltrarno for a twelve-day stay. It was in a quiet piazza with good restaurants and pizzerias nearby. The walk from Ponte Vecchio and the heart of the old city was maybe ten minutes. The walk was always interesting because you have a view of at least two bridges coming and going. I highly recommend this hotel to anyone planning a visit in Florence.

We were in Florence for 2 days and 2 nights. We were very pleased with the size of our double room as it was by far the largest hotel room we had in our Europe trip. We had a great view of the river from our window and were located very close to the center of the city. Everything about our room was comfortable. We had 3 issues. One was upon arrival, you do have to carry all of your luggage up several stairs. The staff met us halfway to carry up a piece which was nice, but an elevator would be a huge help. The second issue is that our room was located right by the front desk, so we heard a lot of noise when there was any conversation outside our door. Third was we could never connect in our room to the wireless internet network they provided. We had to always go the lobby and even then it was still a really slow connection. Other than those 3, the stay was great.