Novecento

This supposed bed-and-breakfast reminds me of the dorm room I had in college, except not as nice. This is a bed and breakfast, that charges for breakfast. That's unheard of. The bathroom is a joke. The owner warns you about using the toilet, and the shower is right across from the toilet and the sink. If you take a shower, then the whole floor gets soaked and wet and you can't use the rest of the bathroom. The air conditioning barely worked, and it shut off when you left the room. So when you return to the room, it was extremely hot and took a long time to barely cool off. I had an argument with the owner about the breakfast, and when I did get it, like the bathroom it was a joke. A few pieces of meat, a piece of toast and some stale cake. When I told the owner's wife that I would not stay more than one night based on the lousy conditions there was a big argument. I refused to stay longer. There were lots of other issues that made this the worst place I stayed in Italy. Much better and more comfortable hotels in the immediate area in the same price range. Stay away from this one.

Cons: the air conditioning is lousy, which means you want the windows open. With the windows open, it cools down nicely. BUT with the windows open means: super noisy streets (construction, people) so no sleep, and mosquitos. There's a mosquito net, but we were told it was only for decoration. I got very tired of having them land on me, and I had bites every morning. The wifi is okay, only okay. The shower is basically the whole small bathroom, with no separate basin, so the whole bathroom gets wet. That's pretty standard in Europe, but that AND the low-pressure lukewarm water....not a great experience. I skipped the shower for the last 36 hours because I didn't want to deal with it. Another con: some guests locked the main door wrong, so we couldn't get in on two different occasions. The owners were apologetic, but still... we were panicked. And on one of those two occasions, we were trying to push the door (which felt stuck), when they buzzed us in, which meant that I kind of fell into the door, and badly bruised a hand. The flights of stairs aren't that big a deal. There's only one pillow each. The breakfast is an extra eight euros (which kind of defeats the purpose of a B&B). But the location is great. Still, if you can afford a better place, go with a slightly better place. PS: No safe.

Beware! The advertisements on travel sites for Novecento B&B may be deceptive. Advertised in some places as being on the third floor, you must realize that in Europe, the ground floor is called 0 (zero). In actuality, the majority of the rooms are on what Americans would call the 4th floor, the 6th room is up another flight of stairs, and the rooftop patio is up more stairs, actually the 6th floor. There Is No Elevator. That is important because you will be climbing up and down 60 steps minimum to get to your room. Also advertised as an amenity on some sites is self-service laundry. There is no laundry in this B&B. You have to haul your laundry down 4 flights of stairs, down the street, and around the corner to the NON self-service lavanderia (laundromat). The Pros: In the middle of everything. Very close to the stunning Duomo, an easy walk to the Ufizzi museum - a must see (spring for the audio tour if you want any explanation of the exhibits; most are not labeled well), and the Academia where you'll see the original statue of David and a lovely collection of unusual musical instruments. Very close to major designer shopping as well as smaller local shops. Beautiful views from the 6th floor outdoor balcony. Sawako is lovely and very accommodating. She's the reason I'm giving 2 stars instead of one. That, and Franco used his electric winch to raise and lower our luggage so we wouldn't have to carry it up and down the stairs. Wi-fi is good. What I didn't like: We didn't know beforehand that this was a walk-up situation. Two of the people in our group have serious physical limitations that made the long stair climb impractical and painful. Not having laundry on site. That was totally misrepresented in the listings on several sites. We spent 6 days there, and were in Italy for 3 weeks, so having laundry facilities was important to us, and the false advertising of laundry availability was one reason we booked at Novacento. No English tv channels. Beds are like all the beds I found in Italy - hard! Franco is boisterous. Some people would say that's a good thing, I guess. It felt invasive to me. Our first day there, all I wanted to do was check in and get to our room. He insisted on showing us business cards of all of his friends' restaurants and shops, then he started singing, then he followed us to our room and stood in the doorway until I was finally able to get him out. One night, we had reservations at a small restaurant down the street. Franco took it upon himself to cancel those reservations, because "that place is no good" and make new ones at one of his friends' places. He even went so far as to walk us to the place (10-15 minute walk). Again, people might think this was friendly; I felt as though is was so we wouldn't 'escape'. It ended up being about 80 € each, about $100. The food was good, but not worth $100. We later went to the place we originally had reservations, had a great meal, for about 20 € ($25) each. The continental breakfast was inadequate. There was salami and cheese, but we were given one small, thin slice of salami, and when we asked for more, we were only allowed one more thin slice. Someone asked for a second croissant, and they were told no. There were packaged buns and crackers on the table, and a ring cake was offered daily (one 1 1/2" slice), and apples and bananas were available. I'm told that when booking there are 2 options available - with and without breakfast. The difference in price is 10€. I recommend not getting the breakfast and using the 10€ to get something at the grocery store to eat. I would never go back to Novecento and would never recommend it to anyone I like.