Ostello Villa Camerata Hostel

This is a hostel, not a hotel. It is not near the city center. It is up a hill. It is a low cost option. It is located in Italy. Wifi is poor. Ok, now if that does not bother you keep reading. If it does, STAY elsewhere. This hostel is in an old and charming building. Rooms, beds, breakfast are all very basic and typical of Italian budget hostels, but for the price reasonable. This is Italy, the breakfast is always meager compared to Germany or America. Different culture, they are not silly, giddy people- it is not Costco.

The location certainly is out of the city in a green area which is up an approx. 1km broken road at the end of a bus rout up a hill!. Two places it is advertised says 300m and another 600m - both WRONG. It would be unsafe to go up here at night.. I have read reviews and responses from more than a year ago, which complain about the road with the response that we are fixing it. INCORRECT - if that was the case something would have happened by now. The 'very precious botanical garden' is a forest which spawns mosquitoes which inhabit the building. They have free access because windows need to be left open because there are no fans and no air con. It was mid-July when I was there and hot! This hostel advertises a restaurant - WRONG! There is availability for this if you are a group and a kitchen for groups. Too bad if you are a single or a couple! They advertise a movie theatre, but I could not get any details as to when and if movies would be shown there. Breakfast is included but bread, jam, coffee, watered down juice was all, after they run out of croissants. The outside 'garden to sit in' is an untidy, long grass area with a mixture of mismatched plastic chairs and cigarette butts on the ground. The outside eating area is covered in pigeon poo and is quite unhealthy. The bathroom I had to use was like a very low class boarding school with a broken, dirty wall, plastic shower curtain and no privacy for dressing or keeping clothing dry. One toilet was closed up, one toilet seat broken and overall very unsatisfactory. Toilets closed for a few hours in the middle of the day so if you go here, be sure to not want to use the toilet at this time because you can't. There were 2 electric kettles in the reception area behind some brochures, I presume for people to make drinks. The only food available was a small selection of snacks from a machine. No other food was available and after hauling my bag up the long broken hill road in the heat, I was too exhausted to go out down the hill again to get food, so it had to be snacks. Internet was only available in public areas. DON'T GO HERE!

Was for sure one of the worst experience while traveling of my life. I was alone in Florence and I'm aware that this made the situations worse but anyway. First, It is located on a grove and is far from the city (and public transport in Florence is expensive), so you take at least about 30m to be anywhere, walking is like an hour and something (I think it's 4/5KM from the center). I was there during the winter, so the sunrise and sunset was respectively around 8h and 16h and the path inside the grove to the building is not well lit and has terrible condition mainly for the trolley wheels. So I was there always in the dark. But for me the worse was the reception, they don't have ANY care with you, you are just someone there. I went to rent a towel and wasn't none available left, although the place was creeply empty! All that they had was face towels and the guy didn't have any comprehension with the situation, I asked if they could lend me the face towel since they didn't have a body one for rent and he was super rude, telling me that if I want the towel I would need to pay the 2,5 euros. They also don't really have a kitchen, zero utensil, just a microwave and a refrigerator and far from each other. And There's no locker in the room. I couldn't be there for the second night, also because I would travel in the morning to Rome and to arrive at the station in time from there wouldn't be possible with public transportation, because of the time that it takes plus the time that it starts to work. Anyway, is personal, but if you are alone and the time of the day is short, DON'T GO THERE. And again, worse staff I ever saw.