We were on a Globus Essential Europe tour. From Rome we went to Florence on 18th october and stayed at hotel 500 which is quite a bit outside the main city. I guess this is because we have to start for Venice the next morning and that is why probably they kept us away from the city to avoid the peak hour traffic. The room was fabulous and no complaints there. But the dinner offered by the hotel as part of the Globus package was a total disaster. The hotel staff were not prepared to serve such a big group of travelers (there were 40 people in our group). The food was cold, not adequate, was served in very small portions. Dessert was a bit stale. One single person was serving pasta from a big bowl and putting 2/3 spoonful of pasta on each plate, not at all something you would expect in a 3 star European hotel, as if she was serving her big family on a weekend family gathering. As expected, the entire group went to bed hungry. Our tour director apologized for this disaster and offered us free gondola ride in Venice as a compensation, which was appreciated by all. Breakfast at hotel 500 was average, not much variety in choices. It would be good to have some beef/chicken sausages for non-bacon/ham eating people. Also there were not enough variety of fruits offered during breakfast.

Set in the countryside just outside Florence (about 10 minutes driving). The rooms are spacious and clean. We dined at the restaurant the first night and the staff wasn't particularly friendly but the food made up for it. Unfortunately this cannot be said about breakfast the following day (Sunday): even though we went to have our breakfast quite early in the morning the choice was very limited and when we asked the head waiter if we could have more croissants he quite rudely replied that they had not received their daily delivery so all they had was already on the table (I could see him being quite stressed and frustrated by the situation still I feel he could have dealt with it differently especially when dealing with paying guests!!) Overall we had a nice stay and besides the breakfast glitch I would recommend the Hotel 500.

Hotel 16 Km away from city center Firenze. Great Tuscany style renovated 500 year old building, perfect decoration. great service from front desk to breakfast & dinner service. Hotel not yet known by tourists, hence very quiet. Fantastic pool, sometimes a little noisy from highway traffic, but not annoying. Large family rooms (duplex) ideal for family with children.

Second time we visited this hotel. It's locations might appear negative (in a logistic zone near the the high ways north-south and east-west. The location is perfect to us: immediate access to Florence, Sienna (Chianti), Lucca, Pistoia and all other yewels.The hotel has free parking, very nice pool and a splendid building. The owners recently took the management inhouse (contracted to a hotel group before) could build a very nice spot in Tuscany from this building. In order to do so, some service lines (catering, bar etc) can use a little more professionalisme. Don't let this stop you from booking the hotel: everything is present and availiable.