Grand Hotel Francia e Quirinale

This is a hotel with a highly attentive staff in every respect all clearly wishing to make our stay comfortable and enjoyable. The food is varied and most satisfactory, promptly served in a most convivial atmosphere. We were more than happy with our room which was kept clean and tidy for us and with fresh towels every day. Part of a small group of 22 travelers made welcome on our first day and with an extremely pleasurable last nights’ meal. A place to which we will undoubtably return travelling as a couple on our own.

The hotel is close to the town centre and the train station is an easy walk away. We didn't hire a car and were glad as there is only parking on the roads with payment meters, quite expensive. We travelled everywhere by train - into Florence , Luca, Pisa and some of the smaller towns. The trains were incredibly easy to use, on time and cheap. We were advised by many people not todrive into the bigger towns and having seen Florence I am so glad we didnt. The hotel has a nicely decorated and pleasant lounge area and dining area. We only had breakfast during our stay and this was fine, the self service breakfast was always yoghurt, fruit, cereal and cold meats, cheese, scrambled eggs and bacon and was plentiful and nicely presented. The waitresses were great. Marta in particular was so helpful and lovely, nothing was too much trouble and she made us feel really welcomed every day. She was a star! Our bedroom was a standard room, it was very clean and the bathroom was large with a good strong shower (much hotter in the evening than the morning). Free safe in the wardrobe which is good. TV in the room but only BBC news channel for us. A large, firm comfortable bed but the pillows were extremely hard and lumpy! They were the worst ever and we have stayed in a lot of hotels! The main down side was the lack of view from the window (see pictures) very unpleasant looking at a wall and this made the room quite dark. Also, many groups arriving by coach so a lot of noise morning and night! The couple above us had a small child and we could hear every noise and the child running up and down first thing in the morning, very noisy with groups coming and going at all times Between 11pm and 6am it was generally quiet. The website pictures of the hotel show what appears to be a lovely pool and loungers but this is not how it appeared while we were there. The pool was empty (it did say this on their website) and the area around it was very tiny, no loungers were put out. I believe this only happens later in the summer. This was a real shame as after all the sightseeing it would have been nice to sit on a sun lounger to relax even if we couldn't use the pool. There is a long thin terrace area at the front of the hotel that has nice seats but it is on the road and lacks privacy and is sometimes noisy, it only gets the sun in the morning. There is nowhere to sit in the sun and relax in the afternoon or evening. The reception staff were okay, polite but busy and rather formal overall. For example, it was my partner's 60th birthday while we were there and I had asked the head waiter if he would serve 2 glasses of Prosecco as a surprise at breakfast. He did this and did also bring out a piece of the breakfast madeira sponge cake with a candle stuck in it. Marta sang happy birthday. We were charged for the 2 glasses of Prosecco at the end of our holiday. Enough said !!! We were also charged 2.8 euros per day tax We wouldn't go back to this hotel again but it was a fairly good base for our travels by train around Tuscany and Montecatini Central station is on a main train line to most other towns. Montecatini town is also very quiet at night after 9pm.