Previous reviews seem to hit the highs and lows of this place. While not scenic in location, the hotel is a value and is 5 minutes to the Academia (David) and the Duomo. that, in and of itself makes this a very good hotel at which to stay. Staff were hit and miss. Ricardo was a great source of information while others showed various levels of helpfulness and pleasantness. We had Room 30 which has a balcony - fairly well sheilded by greenery. I must say, and it's beyond the control of the hotel, it does not help when the building next door is under major renovation and the work starts at 7:00 a.m. The room was spacious but we had just come from a hotel in Venice which had beautiful, crisp, high thread count bed linens so the cottage like bed spread was a bit of a step down. Oddly enough, one of the staff almost tried to convince us not to go to La Giostra for dinner. He seemed to have no patience for the "Prince" who owns the restaurant. We went anyway and had one of the most memorable dining experiences of our trip. Skip the breakfast. While similar in make up to other hotel breakfasts on out trip, it was not as good and not worth the 11 euros per person. Walk three blocks to the Piazza di San Marco to a patisserie and start your day with a latte and pastry for 3 euros. We were there the first week in July and it was 30 to 35 every day. A/C worked fine and I did not detect any sort of musty or mildew smell anywhere in the hotel. Our rating was average, but on the high side of average. We would probably look for another place for our next stay but keep this site in our back pocket for insurance. There was nothing terribly wrong; it just didn't have any sort of wow factor.

Very nice place to stay that's close, but not too close to Duomo. Fairly quiet side street about 5-10 minute walk to Duomo. Rooms are clean and comfortable. Internet access available. Beds comfortable. Nice amenities. Very helpful staff. Only negative was that the air conditioning was not yet turned on. The night air was cool enough, but there was no screen on the window, so a few mosquitoes made it in. Overall, very nice place.

We stayed here in March 2008 for 4 nights, rooms 21 & 22. We had booked a triple room but arrived the first night to find the hotel full and our room "upgraded" to two rooms next door to each other, "at no additional charge". This was not what I expected as our son was traveling with us and I preferred that he stay in the room with us. My theory is that someone else was given the room(s) we ended up with, rejected them, and was then given our original larger room. I asked twice during our stay whether other rooms were open but was told the hotel was full. This hotel was a terrible disappointment after reading the many glowing reviews on Trip Advisor. This was my first expereince using Trip Advisor and I will definitely take other reviews with a grain of salt in the future. The rooms at this hotel must vary wildly in quality, to say the least. We did not have frescoes and antiques. Although our rooms were nothing special, with old bedcovers and tiny bathrooms, the worst thing was the putrid mildew smell. It didn't appear to be coming from the bathroom-- in fact it was hard to pinpoint a source, but it assaulted your nostrils even if you just walked into the small lobby area for a moment and then back into our room. Room 21 was by far the worst. I didn't realize until we returned home that the smell had permeated our luggage and everything in it. I just paid $175 to dryclean/launder all of our clothes-- even the things we never unpacked smelled deeply of the Hotel Morandi. I have so far aired out our suitcases for three consecutive days outdoors and they still smell. While we were out exploring Florence during the day, our clothing was sitting there absorbing the odor. Ugh! Other observations: location was somewhat out of the way. Although everything in Florence is pretty close (we were about a 5 minute walk from the Duomo), the location could have been more convenient and more in the mainstream of things. Via Laura is a one way street that runs alongside the windowless side wall of the archeological museum, a former palace. This wall is covered with the tattered remnants of numerous old posters and that was the view out of our window. I walked down the hall and could see the courtyard some other rooms overlooked and it was obviously a much nicer view. If you come home in a cab, they have to go far out of the way (if coming from the Duomo side of town) because of the one-way street. Other reviewers have noted the two flights of stairs you must climb and the large key fob (circular, about 3"-4" diameter) you will have to carry with you. I also noticed a total absence of smoke detectors-- there may possibly have been some somewhere in the hotel but there were definitely none in either of our rooms. (Maybe building codes in Italy don't require them?) As the building has been there for centuries, I found myself hoping it could manage not to burn down for a few more days. Internet cost 8 euros per day. They had flat screen TVs and new computers in every room, but we had some problems getting the internet to work and my son's brand new laptop picked up a virus from their network. The staff was helpful and friendly, especially Frank (an American who has lived in Italy for many years and teaches art history), but they are only there limited hours and we often left in the morning without seeing anyone. You have to walk a few blocks to find a place to eat, but there are several small cafes that are relatively close. Frank recommended a restaurant we liked that was about 2 blocks away (Accademia Restaurant). We appreciated the large bin of umbrellas by the front door as theirs were much larger than our own and we had rain on a couple of days. Overall, I wished I had chosen another hotel. Our other hotel (in Rome, the Hotel 47), I also found on Trip Advisor and we were pleased with it. It was considerably more expensive, but allowing for the massive drycleaning bill we incurred thanks to the Morandi, the price gap between the two was considerably smaller and we had a much better experience at the 47. I would not go back to the Morandi. The other reviews posted here and the beautiful website did not correspond to our impression of the hotel. We still had a wonderful time in Florence, but I had so looked forward to staying here and it was a terrible letdown. It was much too expensive for what it was-- I have been to Florence 3 times and paid much less for better accommodations. I am posting this lengthy review so that others considering the Morandi get a more balanced view than what I was led to expect.

My wife and I stayed 7 nights in October. Spacious room with small balcony right off lobby. Absolutely charming. Perfectly clean. Well decorated. Nearly all staff have excellent English skills. Hotel is on a quiet one-way street very near Plaza Anunciata. One further block from Plaza San Marcos and Galleria Accademia. A short walk to the Duomo and well within city central. Staff was always cheerful, friendly and very helpful. Arranged for VERY early morning taxi that we needed to make our flight home. Absolutely no problems. Highly recommended.