The best budget hotels in Florence for an affordable stay in the cradle of the Renaissance
Please note our writer visited Florence prior to the coronavirus pandemic
Florence is one of the most expensive cities in Italy in which to lay your head, so ‘budget’ here is a relative term. But thanks to strong competition from the likes of Airbnb, mid and budget range hotels have been forced to keep prices contained. To find a bargain, you may have to go some way from the centre of the city and sacrifice some of the more standard hotel services (24-hour doorman and room service, for example), but in return, you'll get good value for money, which is especially worth it if you're looking for a decent base while you explore the local sights. Here's our pick of the best budget hotels in Florence.
Antica Dimora Johlea is located towards the top of ancient Via San Gallo, a short stroll from Piazza San Marco. A dim entrance hall and tiny squeeze of a lift lead up to this bright, elegant apartment on the top floor, where the atmosphere is very much that of a gracious and comfortable private house filled with antiques, pictures and cosy rugs. The six bedrooms are each different from the next, but all have a vibrant colour scheme, four-poster beds, and a pleasant mix of period furniture and knick-knacks. The icing on the cake is its 360-degree views of the city.
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Hotel Davanzati is set on an ancient street in a pedestrian area next door to Palazzo Davanzati, one of Florence’s most interesting small museums. The look here is homely and traditional within the context of a building with a long history (Giorgio Vasari is said to have slept in what is now Room 304). Think low beamed ceilings, fresco fragments and chunks of exposed original brickwork. The 27 bedrooms are functional rather than stylish, but perfectly comfortable. Buffet breakfast is eaten round two communal tables.
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A charming pensione in a 16th-century palazzo on Florence’s premier fashion street. Hotel Scoti’s spectacular salon is covered in frescoes – think Tuscan country scenes on the walls, trompe l’oeil swathes of fabric, painted columns – and rooms are decorated with appropriately Florentine or artistic prints, with composite stone tiled floors and lovely old furniture like wardrobes, dressers and iron bedsteads. The hotel has no bar or restaurant, but a simple continental breakfast (coffee, croissant, cake, rusk-toast, fruit juice) can be brought to your room.
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Casa Schlatter is more home than hotel: the owner’s great grandfather, Swiss painter Carlo Adolfo Schlatter, built this creeper-clad villa in the late 1890s, and it’s filled with lovely portraits of the artist and his wife. His large, light-filled studio, which overlooks the pretty garden, is now a welcoming living room/reception area with comfortable sofas and lots of reading material. Three pretty bedrooms and bathrooms are scattered with family antiques and art. Breakfast is served in the living room, and there is tea and coffee available all day.
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Palazzo Guadagni sits slap bang on gorgeous piazza Santo Spirito in the Oltrarno, the laid-back residential and museum district south of the Arno. The hotel occupies the upper floors of an imposing building, which comes complete with a vast arched doorway, magnificent entrance hall and pietra serena stone staircase. Once inside, there are frescoes, wonderful old terrazzo or cotto floors, molded ceilings and an air of tasteful gentility. The 15 lovely rooms vary enormously – some have ceiling frescoes, others carved fireplaces.
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Hotel Annalena is one of the few hotels in Florence to retain the authentic atmosphere of an old-fashioned pensione. It sits on the Via Romana, the busy, southern thoroughfare into the centre of the city, but the hotel itself is perfectly peaceful. Housed on the first floor (there is no lift) of a huge, rather dilapidated 14th-century palazzo that once housed refugees fleeing from Mussolini's police, the property offers a genteel air with its antique furniture and pictures, faded rugs and weathered cotto floors. The 20 bedrooms are as traditional as the rest of the place, but are perfectly comfortable with good mattresses and updated bathrooms.
This elegant 19th-century villa turned family-run b&b will suit travellers who are more interested in an authentic Florentine experience and personalised service than the proximity to the main tourist sights. Villa Antea dates from the late 19th century and belonged to the present owner’s great-grandparents and then grandparents. The feeling of a private, rather refined residence prevails, and the place is filled with antiques and pictures from the family vaults. It is far from fusty however; sun streams through tall windows, the colour scheme is light and airy, the bedrooms have parquet floors and the huge bathrooms are modern.
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A narrow staircase takes you up to this cosy, bohemian, first-floor guesthouse in a traditional Florentine residence. Walls are lined with contemporary woven-textile art and colourful notecards from satisfied guests; furnishings are a creative mix of vintage and artsy loft style. The four rooms are individually styled with their own colour scheme and distressed-effect walls, where stacked vintage leather suitcases serve as bedside tables, topped with bent-wire lamps. Furnishings are in distressed wood, woven wicker and hyacinth, and there are pretty decorative details, like plants, ceramics, notepads and quirky picture-frames.
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This hotel, an ex-monastery dating from the early 16th century, stands on sunny, wide-open Piazza Santissima Annunziata, one of Florence's loveliest squares. Inside, it is filled with gorgeous antiques and pictures (many of them taken from the aristocratic owner's family vaults), nooks and crannies and countless quirky curiosities. The 35 bedrooms are all highly individual and vary enormously in shape and size. Even the Classics are quite spacious while some of the Deluxe rooms and suites are enormous; coveted number 39 has a delightful little roof terrace overlooking the square.
This gracious Renaissance villa, set in Italian gardens and vineyards two miles south of the city centre, is the ideal choice if you want to combine a cultural break in Florence with the serenity of the Tuscan hills. The hotel retains its original character as a private country house and rooms are furnished with elegant antiques, period portraits and Persian rugs – several also have a terrace or direct access to a garden. The hotel offers various activities, including tours, cooking classes and wine tastings in the ancient cantinas, but the real luxuries so close to the city-centre are the swimming pool and serene views.
Contributions by Nicky Swallow, Kate Bolton & Rodney Bolt
Prices cited on Booking.com are subject to change in high season and during popular holidays and events.
