La Scaletta

Views are amazing — but the food so-​so. The salmon was served practically RAW — even after returning it to be cooked through. Try the pasta instead.

We loved the hotel. We stayed here in the low season and got an amazing deal on an upgraded room, so I fully admit my review may be a little slanted towards the positive. But this was a really great place to stay in Florence, our room was perfect and the location couldn’t be better. The hotel is reasonably close to everything and we walked everywhere.
The hotel occupies the upper floors of an old building on the south side of the river, just on the edge of the tourist district. We had a lot of trouble figuring out the local bus system, but apparently there is a city bus that stops nearby… maybe you’re smarter than we were? The hotel is also about 10 – 15 minutes walk from Santa Maria Novella train station.
The proprietor and front desk of the hotel really couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. They helped us with our sightseeing schedules, maps, restaurants, etc. While we had an upgraded room, it was extremely modern, clean and comfortable. The bathroom was equipped with such foreign extravagances as a heated towel-​warmer and a bidet. After spending some time figuring out how these strange appliances worked, we were drying out towels and tickling our bottoms just like the locals. And we liked it.
Breakfast was included if you stayed more than one night. It was just basic European fare — pastries, meat, fruit, etc. — nothing terribly fancy, but awesome if it’s free. The front desk was also nice enough to hold our backpacks after checkout while we walked around Florence on our last day. Given the great room, service, breakfast and location, this was a great place to stay. Recommended.

This place was fantastic– the best in Florence!
And the price wasn‘t bad– didn‘t make us wince.
We got the purple suite, it was amazing all around–
with an iPod hookup for music: room to room sound!
The breakfast was nice, a diverse buffet–
and you can eat on the terrace on a nice day.
It‘s a bit hard to find, so you must look carefully
for the La Scaletta sign in Florence, Italy!

AMAZING views from Hotel La Scaletta’s rooftop terrace restaurant. Good food, too, but the star of this show is definitely the setting. I recommend making a reservation for just before sunset, as you can take in the splendor of Florence by day and by night.