Park Palace - Florence, Italy     

I booked 2 rooms in this hotel for our very recent rip, relying on the aspect of the pool and outskirts to give us both the feel of staying at a Tuscan country villa while being able to tour and eat in Florence. The last time I was in Florence in late May/early June, it was scorchingly hot and humid so having a pool to cool off in and to have early evening cocktails at was our plan. It was very disappointing and embarrasing to me, since I booked this for the four of us, to arrive and see an empty pool under repair. It was 4:00 PM on a Friday so the thought of getting another cab to take us and our luggage back to town to find another accomodation seemed daunting, so we decided to stay. I negotiated a 30 euro per night per room price reduction with the manager, so that helped. But still, I would have rather booked in town if I had known there was no pool to enjoy. The villa is quite charming in it's decor(, but the exterior gardens were all overgrown and not well tended to. Even if the pool had been operating, there is a huge pine tree (that's been poorly groomed through the years and should be removed) that would have blocked most of the sun. We were given 2 rooms on the top floor and were quite nice. Brand new carpeting, very nice and tasteful brand new bathrooms, comfortable beds with new linens, brand new flat panel TV, and quite roomy. They still have some touches to finish, but it was a nice room as long as you are under 6' tall. There are dormers, especially in the shower, that would make it uncomfortable for a tall person (the lower floor rooms had enormously tall ceilings). We had the room with the only terrace, which I enjoyed. The views, especially south, were very nice and lush. The view of old Florence, however, was not so great. Trees, hills, and buildings blocked the best of it, but you do get to see a sliver of the duomo dome. The other problem was the renovations going on in rooms below, and we heard banging, saws, etc. throughout our stay. Hearing these sounds prior to commiting to stay upon our arrival, I asked if this was going to be continuing through the weekend and Monday holiday, and the manager and attendant both promised it wouldn't. Big lie. Also, the pool repairman showed up early Sunday AM and was making all sorts of racket until 9:00 PM.

The Park Palace has a lot going for it, lovely friendly staff, a beautiful building, spacious light airy rooms, delightful terrace to sit and eat breakfast. Bus stop outside to get you into Florence about 15 minutes away. Quiet area, no trouble or problems. Sadly all is not wonderful, there is a large tree in the gardens which not only covers three quarters of the pool with shade but also is home to more mosquito's than I would try to count, apart from the vast number of bites my wife and I had to endure. The hotel put mosquito machines with tablets in the rooms, which was kind, but a bit of a giveaway too. We used sprays but these beasts seemed to ignore it. I know you get this problem all over the world, it was very itchy but we still loved the place and the people, out of mosquito season it must be delightful.