Hotel Pensione Mary

Highly recommended, Great hotel

by TripAdvisor Member AliceL

My husband and I stayed at the Hotel Caravaggio for 4 nights in February 2005. We had booked the hotel over wotif.com and planned to stay for 4 consecutive nights. However, when we arrived in Florence some friends invited us to stay with them for 1 night. We asked Hotel Caravaggio if we could change our booking and not stay Wednesday night but stay Saturday night instead without changing what we'd already paid. The Hotel was very helpful and obliged us without charging extra. The room we had was spacious and clean - a nice bath and power shower with massage. The breakfast was varied with cereal, croissants, ham, cheese, rolls, juice and tea/coffee. The hotel has an internet computer and a pleasant lobby/bar area. The hotel staff were friendly and very helpful and all spoke English. It is a conveniently located hotel close to the train station, the San Lorenzo market and only a 10 minute walk from the Duomo and the centre of Florence. Highly recommended as a 3 star hotel. A great hotel in a very beautiful city.

Great hotel!

by A TripAdvisor Member

My fiancee and I just returned from Italy and we stayed at the Hotel Caravaggio for one night. We loved it, especially for the price (78 Euro). It's not right in the middle of most of the tourist activities but if you don't mind walking it's an easy 10-15 minute stroll through shopping areas. The breakfast was above average for an Italian hotel and the room was comfortable and clean with a nice view of the piazza out front. They also have a computer with internet that you can use for 1 Euro/15 min. We'll definitely stay at this hotel again the next time we are in Florence assuming that the rates are comparable.

A fantastic place to stay!

by A TripAdvisor Member

My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Italy. We spent two nights at the Hotel Caravaggio and could not have been more pleased! The room was clean and both the room and bathroom were a decent size. The employees could not have been more helpful and pleasant. We were able to walk everywhere. We would highly recommend this hotel and we will definately stay there again when we return to Florence!

A Fantastic Place to Stay in Firenze!

by A TripAdvisor Member

We stayed at this hotel on the 12th, 13th and 14th January 2005. Our party of 4, 2 adults and 2 children were well accommodated in a spacious room with a queen size bed and 2 single beds. The room and bathroom was spotless and cleaned beautifully every day. There is a bar at the hotel which serves great coffee and drinks, an internet point and local advice about restaurants. Breakfast is probably the best we have had containing cheeses, meats, yoghurst, 4 kinds of cereal, breads (even wholemeal rolls!). The location is great, we walked from the train station and to and from all the attractions. It is close to everything. Perhaps the best thing about our stay was Carlo and his wonderful staff. Carlo was very welcoming and friendly and made our stay fun and fantastic. To the other allegations of scams, this is just untrue. Everything was up front. When we checked in Carlo confirmed our booking that we made via internet, verified how much it would be and what was included. At payment, made by credit card, he explained everything to me and was very honest. I was have no hesitation in staying here again and will recommending friends travelling abroad to stay in the Hotel Caravaggio!

Great for the price

by A TripAdvisor Member

The Caravaggio had pleasant, comfortable rooms and a terrific breakfast buffet included in the rate. The location was good, though a little far from some attractions. Staff was helpful. Note that my credit card was charged in dollars converted to Euros at a somewhat unattractive rate. I suppose this added $2 dollars or so per night, but it was still a great value. Highly recommended for the budget conscious traveler.

Great place, great room

by A TripAdvisor Member

We stayed 1 night at the Caravaggio and loved it. There were 3 of us in a triple, which was a double bed and a twin. The room was very large and we had a view of the Piazza Indepence. Their continental breakfast was a true breakfast with a lot of options. Only caveat was no shower curtain in the bathroom. However this was the best value we had our whole trip. Also it is only about a 10 minute walk from the train. Hotel staff was super nice also. I would stay here again if I ever returned to Florence.

Florence June 2006

by Luke9

"Great place for culture and atmospheric walks"

Stayed at the pleasant Hotel Caravaggio near the railway station.

Really enjoyed the Uffitzi museum, though you need to take your passport if you want to hire an audio guide (why?) you also have to book a couple of days in advance.

Found the Galleria dissapointing apart from the staue of David it had nothing of interest to me. Very poor museum compared to the Uffitzi.

Florentine Fun

by JJBlondie

"The Pitti Palace"

After Jules and I arrived in Florence and checked into the Hotel Caravaggio we had 30 minutes to find the Medici Chapel, the first place we had reserved on our long list of museums and churches. The only problem was that we somehow got confused that the Medici Chapel was located in the Pitti Palace, a 25 minute walk away, and so when we showed up to the Pitti Palace we realized our error and missed our 3 pm reservation for the Medici Chapel. Regardless, Jules and I bought tickets for the Galleria Palatina (Royal Gallery and Apartments) in the Palazzo di Pitti, a lavish Florentine palace commissioned in 1448. We wandered through palatial rooms filled with masterpieces by minor artists and minor pieces by masters, and then through the royal apartments filled with large chandeliered rooms adorned with antique furniture and tapestries. Afterwards we purchased tickets for the huge landscaped Boboli Gardens and wandered around for several hours. The gardens were built in 1550 by the second owner of the palace. From atop a garden building originally used to house pots and vases known as the Casino del Cavaliere, we enjoyed the Tuscan views from the rooftop garden, known as the Knight’s Garden. Today the building houses a Porcelain Museum.

"The Famous Ponte Vecchio"

We left the Pitti Palace, located in Oltrano, south of the Arno River, and headed to the famous Ponte Vecchio (Vecchio Bridge), filled with shops selling Florentine gifts and jewelry. We stopped to take a picture of the Arno River and I noticed all these locks hanging on the side of the bridge. I found out later that traditionally the locks are put there by young lovers and the keys thrown into the river to show their commitment to each other.

From there we wandered through the Piazza della Republica, another old Roman Forum, and once the center of the Roman Empire. Florence was the capital of Rome from 1865 to 1870, and this large square marks the intersection of two main roads (Via Corso and Via Roma). We followed Via Roma past Piazza di San Giovanni and Piazza di Duomo, home to the Sante Maria del Fiore Duomo, the Baptistery, and its bell tower (known as Giotto’s Tower). We ended the night with a lovely dinner of vegetable soup and a simple tagliatelli with ragu.

I discovered one of the things I don’t like about Italy in Florence – crowds. Tourists everywhere, in your way, in front of you, in back of you, waiting in the same lines, going to the same restaurants.

On a different note, Florence was different than I expected, and definitely different than the villa. Where as the villa was quiet and not a lot of traffic and noise, Florence was a bustling city, not a big one, but a crowded one, filled with tourists, narrow streets, and lots of cars and motorcycles. But what was most surprising is that everywhere you go you stumble across a little piazza, hidden between buildings, or a big one, like the one near the Duomo. I discovered that I really liked Florence despite all the tourists and crowds and lines.

"Michealangelo's David"

Florence is a city surrounded by rivers, the Arno and the Mugnone. Up until about 1348, Florence was a thriving city until the Black Death wiped out half of the city’s population of 90,000. This led to a fall of the economy and threw this great European city into turbulent times. Rising to the top of this new government was a family of bankers called the Medicis. The Medicis were passionate about the arts and were informed and enlightened about what they supported. The family touched all three branches of art: musical, visual, and literary. Because they nurtured the greatest artists and thinkers of their day, the Medicis have been called the “Grandfathers of the Renaissance”.

Our first stop on this rainy Sunday was the Galleria dell ‘Accademia, otherwise known as the home to Michelangelo’s David (also known as Il Gigante) and the unfinished (Four) Prisoners. Having studied David in humanities and art history classes in college, I was excited about seeing this 434 cm (approximately 14 feet) tall marble statue (its 23 feet with the pedestal) depicting the slaying of Goliath. What I wasn’t prepared for was how beautiful it was, how life-like it was, and how proportional it was. It truly is one of the most amazing statues I have ever seen. When you look at the statue of David, you see the true Renaissance man, the supernatural feeling of other statues isn’t there, David is human, and he is perfect, his abs, his legs, his hands, his face, and yes, even his butt. This statue was started in 1501 and finished 3 years later. The original sculpture lived outside the Palazzo Vecchio until being moved to the Accademia in the 19th Century and a replica put in its place. We also visited Michelangelo’s unfinished Four Prisoners, which were meant to be completed for the Tomb of the Pope Julius II in the Saint Peter-in-Chains Church, but Michelangelo died before he could complete the statue.