Althea Rooms - Florence, Italy     

I had originally booked a stay at what I thought was the Luna Rossa Hostel through hostelworld.com, it had great reviews. On arrival in Florence I got totally lost as I wrote the directions down wrong. The street is just left outside the train station, and Luna Rossa just has a small brass sign. I was greated by Marco who quickly informed me that he was not allowed to use his dorm rooms, but his cousin had a room at Holiday Rooms down the street. Marco was kind and lugged my very heavy luggage down the street for me. On arrival I was told the price would go up because it was a single room - fine they only charged me an additional 5 euros a night than what I was paying for the 4 person dorm. The room was large with 2 beds and was not made up when I arrived, so I left and a few hours came back. They had taken out the extra bed and had cleaned it up very nice. The room had a bed, wardrobe, chair, and a tv that didn't work. Attached to my room through another door was a private bathroom which was very nice, looked like it had just been re-done, was very clean and even had a view of the Duomo out the window. The room did have air con but it did not work well. After the first night I learned that if you keep the room and the bathroom windows both open there would be adequte ventalation, although the street noise was quite loud. Overall an ok stay good location, although I thought it odd I never saw anyone there, never any other guests or even any employees, I simply paid when I arrived and left the key on my depature!