We enjoyed our stay at Porta Faenza. The location is super-convenient, near Santa Maria Novella train station (but well within walking distance of most everything else), staff are warm, rooms are spacious (for American standards, and compared to the other hotels we stayed at in Europe) and the included breakfast very good.
Both my wife and I agree that Florence was one of our favorite cities, and I think much of it had to do with the hotel. They also have free wifi and a computer downstairs for anyone to use (they ask you to observe a 30 minute use limit, but I don't think we ever saw one person on it the entire time).
My only rants/complaints:
1) There was a family with a couple kids down the hall, and they were LOUD and very inconsiderate. I think at around 7am or 7:30am one morning, we heard the kids screaming and slamming the doors and their parents yelling at them. I opened our door twice to *shush* them but they either didn't hear or didn't care. Very annoying and super inconsiderate. Mornings weren't the only times either - they would act up in the evenings too. Fortunately they were only there for less than half the time we were, otherwise I was so close to calling the front desk and asking them to do something about it.
2) One of the staff members, though nice, was not too helpful. I called the front desk to ask about making dinner reservations and he picked up and simply responded that he didn't think it was necessary and said just to go between 7 and 10. What kind of response is that!? Most of the time, for your customers, you'd just offer to call the restaurant anyway... Courtesy 101. We were a bit irked at the passiveness (or laziness?).
Otherwise, I wouldn't let those two things stop me from going back again. Our stay was a very pleasant one regardless.
NOTE: Janice C's review mentioned that she had to leave her room keys behind every time she went out. Perhaps they've changed their house rules? We were not told this and carried our room keys with us everywhere we went. read more