My daughter and I just returned from a wonderful 4 night stay at the Degli Orafi. We LOVED this hotel and it's staff! It is perfectly located for easy walks to everywhere in Florence. Our room was on the second floor and was in a very quiet area of the building. The rooftop terrace was an absolute highlight of our stay here. Massimo and Anna took very good care of us as we enjoyed our drinks, appetizers and views every evening. Some nights we came back after dinner for dessert and wonderful ambience! The breakfast is by far one of the very best I've ever encountered in European hotels. Huge selection and all you can eat. The staff at the front desk (especially Giulio and Christiano)went out of their way to make wonderful restaurant recommendations and sightseeing options. If you can swing it, I highly recommend hiring a car and driver (done through the hotel) to take you to the Tuscan countryside. Another highlight for us! After reading another TA review of this hotel we almost didn't book it because of the comments about the hard beds. (I have a bad back). However, we took a chance and are so thankful that we did. The beds, while firm are not hard. My back actually loved the mattress. In our opinion you can't go wrong by booking here. You'll be glad that you did!

I stayed for 4 nights in June. It is the ideal base for all the sights
- everywhere is an easy walk away.
Room was adequate on 4th floor (top) with atmospheric views
over the rooftops.
Breakfast served in very attractive character room overlooking the river.
The best feature of the hotel was the rooftop bar where light meals
were served. I must commend the bar staff Max and Anna for excellent service in looking after us after a hard days sightseeing.
The worst feature of the hotel were the two small lifts - one an antique and one modern but malfunctioning.

A really sucky hotel. staffs are not helpfull at all, breakfast sucks. really hard beds. no internet access in your room. only one computer available on their so called business center. this is not a 4 star at all. No 24 hour maid service. lots of mosquitoes. Bad room service.LAZY AND RUDE STAFFS.
good location though

We stayed at Degli Orafi for three days in June.

I have not had a chance to check the hotel rating system in Italy, but the hotel shows 4-stars in front of the building and on its web site. I usually select 5-star hotels since we usually travel only once or twice a year, but I decided to try Degli Orafi because of the location and I could not find 5-star hotels in top 50 at TripAdvisor for the dates I was looking for while Degli Orafi had great reviews.

The hotel is at Ponte Vecchio and Uffizi was just a minute walk. It is a little bit of a walk to the Duomo especially when it is 85F-90F in June in Florence. As a first time traveller, I was looking at hotels like Grand Hotel and Excelsior, but you have to be ready to walk a lot if you decide to stay there and visit the Duomo, Galleria dell'Accademia, etc.

For a family of three including a teenager, we reserved a triple room, but the room was smallish compared with other rooms at 5-star hotels we stayed in Siena and Venice and had little space left after with the extra bed in place. We switched to an apartment room in the new tower for 100 euro more. The apartment was on a high floor, duplex and was clean and very spacious. However, they must have made some mistake when they built this apartment tower. As some other reviewers mentioned, you can hear the voice and the television from the adjascent apartment so clearly and loudly (you can hear what they are saying though every word) that if your neighbors are talking or watching TV, there is NO WAY you can sleep. The first night we could not sleep until our neighbors stopped talking around 1:30am. I was ready to switch rooms again or check out, but luckily for us, there was no one staying in the next apartment on the second night and the neighbors went to bed early on third night. It looks like apartments numbers like 41 & 51 may not have adjacent apartments, and may not have this problem. You should be very careful if you are interested in reserving an apartment at this hotel. The main bathroom in the apartment also lacked any space to put things on. Finally, the room had ample closets but no chest/drawers.

Water bottles are free, which is nice. Internet is only available at the lobby, which is very inconvenient when you are accustomed to be able to check travel schedule, etc. in your room.

In general, the staff were professional and helpful. However, the concierge could not help with Uffizi reservation saying making a reservation was impossible for the next two days. We decided to stand in line at 8am, and after 45 minutes, we were in. I recommend making a reservation before you come to Florence.

We only went to the bar during the day time, but the view was nice. The libary was also quiet and cozy.

The concierge recommended and booked us restaurants for all three nights. Every restaurant was decent, but Club Culinario Toscano da Osvaldo was more sophisticated among the three and we really enjoyed the meal there. Ristorante Buca Mario was another one, which was very good but was much bigger, crowded and service was a little slow at times due to big groups. I definitely recommend trying both of them, but especiallay Osvaldo. You cannot easily find the type of Italian food served at these restaurants in NY. Osteria dei Baroncelli was close by, and served basic but decent meal, and the price was much cheaper. The breakfast at the hotel was pretty basic, but the dining room was gorgeous.

Overall, Degli Orafi was a very decent hotel and I think it deserves its 4-star rating, but frankly I would advise against staying in an apartment despite the space.