Sina Villa Medici, Autograph Collection in Florence

The most important thing you expect from a hotel, any hotel is a good nights sleep. I stayed 3 nights with 3 nights of poor sleep because the hotel insisted on leaving two enormous lights on in every balcony in the hotel until 2 am. Rude general manager who was dismissive to a solo traveler, staff refused to acknowledge they should turn off the lights at night. Hotel is far from the main attractions. Not walking distance and the walk is through a not so great neighborhood unless you walk a longer route along the river.

I always like to start with the positives before explaining why we felt this hotel does not live up to its 5-star rating and where it desperately needs some upgrades.

The best part of this hotel is the pool and the beautiful garden courtyard. The courtyard is well maintained, and the pool was incredibly refreshing, especially during a heat wave. The breakfast buffet was also good, and the restaurant and front desk staff were friendly, professional, and did their best to help whenever they could.

Unfortunately, there were several issues that significantly impacted our stay. We visited Florence during an extreme heat wave, with temperatures reaching 39–40°C. Regardless of the weather, a 5-star hotel should have an air conditioning system that can adequately cool the rooms. The air conditioning was just bad regardless of the heat wave. We experienced a five-hour power outage, which was not the hotel's fault, but after the power returned, we then spent an entire day without functioning air conditioning. The only thing that made the room remotely bearable was a fan.

In addition, the TVs are old and need to be upgraded to include streaming apps such as Netflix and the refrigerator in our room did not keep our drinks cold, and the Wi-Fi was slow.

In my opinion, the hotel needs to make three major improvements:

Upgrade the air conditioning system.
Install modern smart TVs with streaming capabilities and ensure room amenities, such as the refrigerators, are working properly.
Improve the Wi-Fi throughout the property.

While the grounds are lovely and the staff were genuinely kind and helpful, the overall experience did not justify the price or a 5-star rating.

In fact, we decided to leave early and return to Rome, where we stayed at a 3-star hotel that offered excellent air conditioning, a smart TV, reliable Wi-Fi, and a much more comfortable overall experience.