As a family of four with two adult children we were looking for accommodation near the centre of Florence for a reasonable price. Cristina House was able to offer us a quadruple family room with an en-suite shower room. The room was large and airy, with a large family sized shower room. the room was very clean, with fresh linen and fluffy white towels.

The continental breakfast was superb, with tea, coffee, orange juice, croissants, fresh bread rolls, cheeses, butter, jam, boiled eggs and yoghurts, a great start to each day! The breakfast table is wheeled into your room at a time you specify between 7:30 and 8:30am.

Cristina and Germano were very helpful and friendly and welcomed us into their home. Cristina was able to obtain pre-booked tickets for the Uffizzi and Academia galleries before we arrived which was very useful. She also gave us a streetmap and offered advice about where to go in Florence.

Cristina House is ideally located just a ten minute walk from all the major sites in the city. We really enjoyed our time in Florence, made all the more pleasant knowing we had such a comfortable place to stay.

We too met Germano at the train station. Cristina House had a positive review in Lonely Planet, so we decided to go with it. What a mistake!!! He drove us to their house, helping me carry the bags upstairs. Cristina was very nice and the room was great. Then, we paid for four nights. That’s when things changed.

The breakfast was terrible. Delivered at 7:30 a.m., we received a hard boiled egg, a poor little mug of coffee and tea (we tried to get two cups of tea, but that wasn’t an option for some reason), some lousy rolls, and that was it. It never changed, and was really disappointing.

I guess this is their house, but they weren’t much on being good hosts. The first day we wanted to sleep in, being jet-lagged, but they kept knocking on the door to see when they could clean the room. From 8:30 a.m. on. Every 15 minutes. Every day.

The restaurant they recommended was bad, our only bad meal in Italy. No one was in the restaurant and the food was awful. We later found out it was owned by Cristina’s brother.

They wouldn’t make reservations for us at the Uffizi Gallery. Cristina was too busy watching an Italian soap opera to help us, even after we asked her.

Our last day, they started knocking on the door at 8:30 to remind us that checkout was at 10 a.m., after we had asked them not to bother us anymore. They then offered to call us a taxi. I guess the pickup from the train station didn’t include a drop off. The taxi (they of course knew the driver) cost us 15 Euros for a half mile trip, and at the train station, Germano pulled up 5 minutes after us to recruit more victims. It took everything I had not to confront him about our lousy experience.

Stay away from Cristina House. You will have a miserable experience if you go there.

We arrived in Florence, by train, unable to book accommodation prior due to all the internet cafes being closed in Sorrento. We were approached by a man (Germain) who offered some accommodation at his B&B. We (4 of us) were a bit sceptical but took him up on the offer to have a look. When we arrived we were met by Cristina who immediately made us feel very welcome. When we finally arrived at the front door (3 floors up the stairs) we were convinced we had made a wise choice. The rooms were large, clean, quiet and the location was fantastic as it was only a few minutes walk to the centre of town and to the railway station. The breakfast each day were great with plenty to eat and the rate for the room was excellent. Cristina and Germain were great hosts and I would recommend their accomodation to anyone. Thanks again for a great stay.