Grand Hotel Minerva

Pros: 1. Location - Barely 400 meters (walking distance) from the Santa Maria Novella train station. If you arrive by train, and do not have too much luggage, you can walk up to the hotel. Also, it is on Piazza Santa Maria Novella - a great hang-out place for youngsters, with bars and restaurants, and of course the beautiful Sant Maria (must see) Church. 2. Sights - The Duomo, Ponte Veccio, Uffizi Gallery, Accademia Gallery are all walking distance from the hotel. It is very central, without being in noisy. 3. Hotel - You can watch the sunset from the Rooftop Bar (next to the pool). Great for a sundowner. The food was good. The staff were polite and helpful. They also lent us adapters on request. The breakfast was decent. Cons: 1. The room was small, and not really value for money. I found the pricing steep 2. No drinking water in the room, even after charging so much.

By far, our favorite hotel stay during our travels through Milan, Florence, and Rome! The location is unbeatable, we were literally able to walk to it easily with our luggage from the train station. It is situated on a beautiful plaza, with a rooftop bar, that provided the most amazing views of the city! Would stay here again in a heartbeat, as well as recommended to our family and friends! Our suite was absolutely stunning, with beautiful fresh, modern, and inviting color scheme, and well appointed! Our family of four stayed comfortably in this room, that provided a large king bedroom, and two day beds for our kids. The staff was extremely friendly and accommodating with every request! Breakfast was delicious and provided a wide variety! Can’t say enough good things about this hotel!

Absolutely awesome hotel. Large comfortable well appointed rooms. A super attentive staff. Just a few minutes walk from almost everything you'd want to see in Florence. Outstanding breakfast. Staff gave us great restaurant recommendations. A few minutes walk from the train station. Despite it's location on a large piazza, it was perfectly quiet at night. Because we were there during the winter, we didn't have a chance to use the rooftop pool.

There are not enough superlatives to adequately describe our stay at this wonderful hotel. Location is excellent, close to many attractions. Service is on point! And when our room door had a technical issue they immediately upgraded us to a deluxe room with a view for the duration of our four-night stay. The breakfast buffet is one of the best we’ve experienced with attentive, experienced staff ensuring all runs smoothly! Don’t miss a trip to the bar for a Negroni Toscana made authentically by a Florentine bar tender. This is Quality with a capital Q! Stayed during Winter so didn’t experience the pool this time, but will be a return guest in future for sure! Bravo!!

When our mom died suddenly 5 days before our trip to Italy in 2023, there was a lot to cancel. We had 2 hotels booked in Italy. The first one gave us a complete refund and their condolences. The second one, The Grand Hotel Minerva, told us that they would offer a credit to be used with one year - no condolences. Because we lost a lot of money, and live out of the country, we could not return within 365 days. When I reached out after this time, the hotel said they’d give us a 20% discount if we returned within another year. We were able to accomplish that this past December. We were shocked upon arrival to learn that they would no longer honor their promise due to the way we re-booked it. It seemed strange that an oversight in booking would have anything to do with a gesture of kindness during a difficult time. You either care enough to extend a gesture or you don’t. They didn’t. We were embarrassed for them as they verbally wrestled with us at the desk, missing our point continually. Both the desk clerk AND manager GIACOMO BALESTRI (a soulless man) could not leave their script, saying there was nothing they could do. As a person who worked in hotels for many years, there is a LOT that a manager can do. There is a lot that a desk clerk could have done. Their tight clutch to 20% of our stay was neither a good business decision nor a human relations one, particularly that this story was about a death. As a further insult, they took 10% off our dinner from a dinner we had at the hotel, disclosing that they indeed had the power to do more. The hotel itself was clean and of course the views are great. But the warmth of Italy was not represented here. In fact, it was a side of humanity I wish to never experience again.