Where to Stay in Florence: Hotel Loggiato dei Serviti

4/14/2015

Hands-down, the highlight to our Florentine weekend was our hotel. I rarely get to say something like this because Massi and I are the kind of folks that don't fret much about where we lay our heads, as long as it's clean and reasonable. However, our jet-setting ways let us accumulate a free night to use anywhere in the world with Hotels.com and after a bit of TripAdvisor research, I chose this one. Hotel Loggiato dei Serviti was probably one of THE BEST hotels we've ever stayed in, it is simply oozing with Old World charm and is the perfect refuge from the busy streets of Florence. Plus, the price is right. Even if our night was free, they go for something around 80-90 Euros a night which is very reasonable for being literally two blocks from the Duomo and all the action. So here's Massi rolling up to the entrance of the hotel, tucked into one of Florence's historic residences facing Brunelleschi's Spedale degli Innocenti, in Piazza della Santissima Annunziata:

Here we are waiting our turn after these ladies at reception. How cute is reception?! When you step into the hotel, it's like the rest of your crazy, tourist-dodging filled day dissipates into nothingness and you're suddenly in a perfect Italian dream. Can't you just picture yourself coming in from a long day of sightseeing, having a long soak (you'll see the bathroom if you scroll down) and getting all pretty for your fabulous evening in Florence? The photograph immediately below is of the sitting room that leads into the breakfast room which was quaint, elegant, and welcoming all at once (no photos of it unfortunately, too busy eating my surprisingly good brioche).

Here is Massi stopped in the corridor of the second floor, he was in awe of the old wooden chairs flanking the mirror. The floors are wooden and creaky, but in my opinion, it's an endearing feature. You don't come to a city like Florence and stay in a modern hotel, you just don't, it's such a shame. Our room, in case you want to request it, was a Superior Room, #9 to be precise. We had a bit of an inner struggle convincing ourselves to leave the room to walk around Florence in the evening, it was just that beautiful. The only thing I would say is while all the amenities are there, don't expect all the finishings and furniture to be up to 'modern-day' standards. But who cares about that anyways when your bed and bathroom looks like this-

No photograph could do justice for that bathroom, it was probably as big as the actual bedroom with frescos on all the walls and exposed wooden ceilings that were the highest I've seen in a hotel. It was equipped with a towel warmer, a bathtub (which I thoroughly enjoyed) AND a shower. Here I am being a weirdo and taking a mirror selfie although I shouldn't have been smiling, my feet were suffering from having had broken in my new Stuart Weitzman loafers on the cobblestone streets.

We did end up going out for the evening- stopping in a corner bar to have a raspberry beer with pretty much all of Florence's American exchange students and the odd Italian teenager hoping to get lucky with them. I was hungry as per usual, even after my monstrous steak, so we had some more beer with a side of pizza before heading back to check out that amazing poster bed. Here's some of what I saw before the first beer on a empty stomach made my head hazy: