Grand Hotel Minerva - Florence, Italy     

Spent a long weekend here in June and could not fault anything about this hotel. The rooms were spacious and very clean. There was plenty of choice for breakfast each morning. Didn't use main restaurant. This hotel is very central to everything you need to visit in Florence. In front of the hotel there is a lot of building work going on so the piazza was in fact a bit of a building site and not somewhere where you could sit and relax as reflected by photos on Tripadvisor at present. I'm sure all the work will be completed by next year. This did not in any way spoil the enjoyment of our holiday.

Just on a whim picked this hotel and it was great. tho we had a deluxe room - with no view (watch out for this...) the upside was that it was dark for sleeping and quiet. not planning on spending much time in the room, i didn't bother making noise about it. The room was very comfortable - and quite nice sized. we did not eat b'fast there as it was 30E--$$$. loved being right near the pantheon and the square in front of it. i had my food allergic child with me and there is a nice grocery right off the square which was very handy for us. the a/c worked great in the hotel -- the staff was very helpful. roof bar quite $$ - 9E for a soda...but lovely. for a/p car service used bob's limo and it was great and much less than the hotel offered rate. had trouble recharging some electronics and concierge came up w/his personal transformer which finally got things going. but a lovely lobby to sit in-truly grand-and a very nice place to stay. almost stayed near the spanish steps and was very happy to not have put ourselves in the midst of the fray. this hotel is about a 10min. walk to the steps and also near to the trevi fountain, piazza navona, etc, etc. a great location in other words. i felt after agonizing w/too much info, i picked just the right spot.