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Duomo: Viva Hotel Laurus al Duomo

Via de' Cerretani, 54/R, Phone: 055.2381752/ Fax: 055.268308
www.vivahotels.com

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Reviewed by: The Rhodes from Canada, review #1733

When: Sept ember 2006

This hotel was in a great location in the heart of Florence. {4 stars}

View from the hotel rooftop patio, photo by L. Rhodes

This hotel was in a great location. Within easy walking distance to all the main sights and museums in Florence.

The San Lorenzo market is just behind the hotel.

We drove into Florence and finally did arrive after making many wrong turns and trying to navigate all the one way streets. The hotel has valet parking (E32) and was well worth every dime of it. I would not recommend driving around Florence, not even just to your hotel, if it can be avoided!

The rooms were nicely decorated, very clean, quite large and had a nice big bathroom, satellite TV, internet hookups and a minibar. Our room was at the back of the hotel facing, what I believe was another wing of the hotel ... nothing to look at, but it was very quiet a night.

There is a rooftop lounge/breakfast room with a great view of the Duomo and the Campanile. It was a spectacular way to start the day. The breakfast was one of the most elaborate we seen with all kinds of pastries, meats, cheeses, buns, breads and they also had scrambled eggs! There was a toaster for “do it yourself” toast and tons on wonderful jams and preserves. The coffee was great ... they had regular American/Canadian drip as well as a cappuccino bar. The highlight was being up there at 9AM when every church bell in Florence started tolling ... WOW!

I found this hotel through Trip Advisor and using the “check rates” function found the best rates through Expedia. Initially the rate was higher than what we wanted to pay ... around E140/night, but I kept checking over a period of a week or two and eventually it came up with a “special” rate. We ended up paying E100/nt, which I think was pretty good.

I recommend this hotel and wouldn’t hesitate to stay again because of the great location and their rooftop breakfast room.

This review is the opinion of a Slow Travel member and not of slowtrav.com.

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