Hotel Cardinal Of Florence - Florence, Italy 

Hotel Cardinal is a nice hotel located right behind the Duomo in Florence. The hotel can be reached by a 10 minutes drive by taxi from the Railway station. Its advisable to take a taxi as its difficult to find the place on your own the first time you visit. Besides, its a 20-25 minutes walk from the station so it may be difficult to reach there on foot with luggage and also when travelling with kids. As per the description in the reviews I read, this hotel is located in one of the lanes behind the Duomo in an old 2 storeyed building with 60 steep steps leading to the reception. You may get totally dissappointed when you reach the entrance of the building and climb the steps. We were all girls with a child in our group so didnt hesitate to call the manager at the desk down to pick up our heavy bags. I must mention that the staff here was very friendly and the florentine hospitality was the best that we've seen of the cities visited in Italy. The rooms and bathrooms were neat and clean. This hotel can be inconvenient for older people due to the fact that there was no lift in the hotel building and the location was far from the station. But besides that everything else was perfect. And the best thing about this place is definitely the friendly and helpful staff. This place reminds me of the bed and breakfast places that are found in some parts of UK.