Hotel Machiavelli Palace

Pros: location is good. wifi was good. Breakfast was fine.

Cons: Shower flooded the entire bathroom, and smelled like sewer. Front desk check out was unprofessional- they didn't tell me the total before charging my card. And ask for cash for city tax which is super sketchy. I paid it with CC. Bed is hard as the floor.

DO NOT BELIEVE THE 3 or 4 STAR reviews!!! Just stayed over the week and it was certainly not a 3 or 4 star experience. While the staff is friendly (the highlight of the visit for sure) the rooms are worn and old and reeked of cigarette smoke... Imagine some of the old style Vegas properties and you can get the picture... maybe that was where they got the room furniture...My wife almost threw up from the scent and we found that the 88 degree outdoor heat was preferable over the smell. After spending over 20 euro's on cleaning supplies and air fresheners we returned to the room to do battle with the forces of tobacco and mildew. While we managed to make the room livable it seriously impacted the quality of our experience in Florence and our perception of the city overall. The breakfast is pretty much typical euro fare but the amount of variety in comparison with other hotels on our trip to Italy was lacking. The location is ok and it is most nearby the train station (makes for handy daring train escapes from the hotel). The wireless internet is glacial paced and while they say you can access it without using a social network account the password we were provided did not work and the front desk was unable to provide a solution other than to use one of our accounts to log in...looking forward to Italian SPAM... and if you planned on logging in during reasonable hours say 0800-2300, your log in was met with indifference and continual attempts to load and reload followed by requirements to re-log on as you had 20 minutes before. Overall I would certainly never return to this hotel. While the hotel staff were polite and friendly (busy too) they could not make up for the distinct lack of quality of the room itself.

Pros: Close to the Train Station and a few blocks from the Duomo (Although in downtown Florence what isn't?)

Cons: Room smelled of smoke worse than a 20 year old Vegas Casino. Had to use a half bottle of air freshener to stay in it. Wireless internet only was available for connection between the hours of 1230AM-330AM any other time,no connection. sparse breakfast.