Spit Flings & Other Things...

Before I start this post, I have to admit that I have gotten very behind in my blogging! Our internet service while in Italy wasn’t so hot, so I didn’t get to post as I would have liked. Over the last 3 days, while we were in Venice, I didn’t have internet at all, so posting was impossible.

Now, we have made our way to Paris and I have good internet service. So, hopefully I can get caught up on my posting.

OK, back to the subject at hand - the Hotel Brunelleschi!

While we were in Florence, we stayed at the Hotel Brunelleschi. The last time we were in Florence (a year and a half ago), we stayed there as well. We enjoyed our stay so much that we decided to give the Brunelleschi another go this time around.

Here are a couple pictures of our room, number 231. It was roomy and comfortable to say the least, especially for Europe standards.

Since there wasn’t a Hilton in Florence where we could stay for free using the Wayneman’s Hilton points, we had to pay for this room. But, they had a promotion and I got a rate of 199 Euro per night. I know that sounds steep, but in Europe, 200 Euro is pretty good. Even the dumpy hotels are close to that price, so for the Brunelleschi, this wasn’t too bad.

The Brunelleschi left out some nice Italian biscotti for us to munch on and a note welcoming us to the hotel.

Speaking of welcomes, when we turned on the T.V., this was on the screen. Thought it was a nice touch!

The bathroom wasn’t too shabby. Never tried the bidet at this hotel either. What can I say, not really my thing.

This hotel is in a very old building. It has an elevator, but you still have to do a bit of stair climbing. In fact, there are staircases everywhere. It is easy to get lost because the hallways can be like a maze of stairs. I guess it is all part of the Brunelleschi’s charm.

One of the things I love about this hotel is the exterior. The stone tower gives the exterior wonderful character!

Speaking of location, that is by far the best thing about the Brunelleschi. It is completely central to all the sights of Florence! The location couldn’t be any better for sightseeing Florence. It is just a few minutes walk from the Piazza del Duomo and my favorite piazza in Italy, the Piazza della Signoria.

My most favorite thing about staying at the Brunelleschi is that you never have to ask for a wake up call. Every morning at 7:00 AM, you get the best wake up call ever! The bells ring from the nearby Duomo and it is wonderful to get up out of bed, throw open the windows and have a listen to the beautiful melody! Press play below to check out the 7:00 AM wake up call of the Duomo bells playing in the distance over the Brunelleschi courtyard.

Check out the little, skinny street that leads to the hotel. Cars actually fit down that street! Now we know why there are so many small cars in Europe - they have to be tiny to fit down these narrow streets!

Especially at night!

The hotel is located on this little courtyard. Our room faced the courtyard and we noticed that many tour groups would come into the Brunelleschi courtyard throughout the day. The guides would give a talk about it and the groups would move on. We tried to listen, but the tours were always in other languages so we couldn’t understand what the guides were saying. We wondered what was so special about this location? We forgot to ask the hotel what was up with all the tour group talks.

Hearing these bells each morning gave me such a thrill that I didn’t mind at all that they were waking us up so early!