Grand Hotel Minerva

I wholeheartedly recommend this hotel in Florence. I don't know if you could pick a more picturesque locale. This is right on a piazza next to a beautiful church. There's a great gelato place on the corner and you are surrounded by restaurants and shops. You're not more than 15 minutes from most major attractions by foot. There's a laundromat nearby, pharmacies, and you're less than 5 minutes from the train station. The hotel itself is very nice. Lobby is gorgeous, front desk was terrific, the free breakfast is fabulous and the waitstaff are incredible. Sefedine and Paolo felt like old friends by the end of our stay. By the second day they had remembered our drinks and other requests and always took the best care of us. They even gave my sister in law a gift for her birthday! The rooms we were in were mid-tier among their offerings and they aren't as picturesque as the rest of the hotel, nor are they huge but the beds are comfortable, bathrooms were very nice, they were very clean etc. We did adjoining rooms since we were traveling with kids and we weren't planning on spending much time in the room so this was a good choice for us. If you are there for a romantic stay, perhaps upgrade to one of their fancier rooms. The rooftop pool has the most insane views. It's a tiny pool but perfect for our needs for an hour here or there for the kids between activities. No lounge chairs, just a few couchlike things and then tables and chairs. At night I think it is an active bar and can be attended by non hotel guests and I bet the views at night are equally incredible. I will be telling all my friends to stay at this hotel if they are coming to Florence, that's how much I liked it.

The Hotel Minerva is clean and in a good location, but the service is poor, and the rooms are small- the hotel is costly for what they offer - the initial room allocated was tiny, with a noisy AC and close to a service lift. There is no complimentary water, coffee, or tea, and the bath amenities are cheap with a strong smell of químicals. The hotel advertises sun loungers through the pictures, but there are only a bunch of chairs and tables, making it difficult to relax around the pool.

My husbund and I chose this hotel for a short staycation (we live in Northern Tuscany) to celebrate our wedding annyversary. We couldn't have made a better choice. We expected spotless cleanliness and great decor and we were fully right in our expectations. We were surprised by the staff's friendliness: attentive but never obtrusive, smiling but respectful. Not easy to say what was the best part of our short stay, but in the end we were both in agreed in rating the dinner the best and least expected part of our experience. Elaborate but not pretentious dishes, strong but balanced tastes from entrées to desserts. The 9 am bath on the rooftop pool, still empty at the time, was the icing on the cake. We were both born in Florence, but we could not take enough of the views form the rooftop. Breakfast was also very good and varied, and, last but not least, the cocktail served on the rooftop we had as an aperitif were great and in the most stunning sunset setting.