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Casa Rosa - Florence
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Accommodates 4 — 2 Bedrooms
— 2 Baths
Swimming Pool - Air-Conditioned Bedrooms - Satellite TV -
Internet Point
This is a truly unique offering. First,
however, you should know what Casa Rosa is not: It
is not a big accommodation, and while all rooms are furnished
in restrained good taste, the apartment is not, in itself,
fancy or elegant.
Casa Rosa lies in a pink stucco
building nestled on the grounds of one of Florence's most
prestigious villa hotels. You enter directly from outside,
at raised ground level, into the well-equipped kitchen, off
of which is a smallish twin bedroom. At the far end of the
kitchen, and forming an "L" with it, is the comfortably
furnished living room with a dining table for 4 at the kitchen
end. Off the living room lies a pleasant bedroom, equal in
size to the other, with a divisible matrimonial bed. Beds
are good, and there are adequate reading lamps. Each bedroom
has an excellent bathroom en-suite, each with tub and hand-held
shower. Adjacent to each bedroom is a little hallway with
a sliding door that leads into a large walk-in closet shared
by both of the bedrooms; this sounds as if it should result
in a significant lack of privacy, but in reality it doesn't.
Casa Rosa has a phone line for both incoming and outgoing
calls. Shortly, we expect the flat to be equipped with both
satellite TV and a separate DSL line (hopefully with a wireless
router), so that you can easily hook your laptop up to a high-speed
internet line.
So far, so good, but nothing
extraordinary. Casa Rosa's uniqueness results from a combination
of three things:
(a) A lovely terrace runs the
entire length of the living/dining room, effectively doubling
the living space. The terrace enjoys an evocative view over
the southern hills of Florence, dotted with villas, vines,
and clusters of trees. The quality of the light is exquisite.
This is a delightful place for outdoor dining, reading, and
just plain relaxing.
(b) The beautifully manicured
grounds of the property offer perhaps the most magnificent
view of Florence to be had anywhere, surpassing even the one
from Piazzale Michelangelo. The entire Florentine cityscape,
from San Miniato to the Palazzo Vecchio to the Duomo - it's
all spread out before you. This is a view which reinfuses
meaning into that overused word, "awesome". Comparable
experiences are seeing the Grand Canyon or taking a gondola
down the Grand Canal for the first time. You also have the
use of a stunning swimming pool shared by guests at the adjacent
hotel; when you poke your head out of the pool, what you see
is Brunelleschi's dome!
(c) In terms of exploring Tuscany,
the location is ideal. You are in Bellosguardo ("beautiful
view"), Florence's most prestigious neighborhood, located
on the southern slope of the city. You can walk down to the
Ponte Vecchio in 20 minutes; or you can drive in 3 minutes
to convenient parking in the Piazza del Carmine. Most important,
being on the south side of Florence, you enjoy easy access
to all the attractions of the Tuscan countryside without
having constantly to cross over Florentine traffic. (This
is the terrific advantage of this location over, for example,
Fiesole.) Siena, Arezzo, San Gimignano, Lucca, Montecatini,
Chianti country - all are well within an hour's drive.
Casa Rosa is a fantastic place
for two couples or for a family with well-behaved children.
PLEASE NOTE: While Casa Rosa
lies on the grounds of the hotel, it does not come with hotel
services. It is just a coincidence that Casa Rosa shares the
hotel grounds. The hotel staff is as helpful as can be within
reason, but the staff is not a formal part of the deal. You
can take advantage of certain hotel services -- fresh linens;
breakfast; lunch and snacks by the pool; laundry; gym; sauna;
drivers -- but you must pay for such services, and they don't
come cheap. Also, there are cats which roam the grounds; guests
are told not to feed the cats, but we strongly suspect
that cat-lover guests of Casa Rosa have not only ignored that
rule but actually invited the cats into the flat. Thus, if
you suffer from an extreme cat allergy and must have an ironclad
guarantee that no cat has entered the flat for the past 20
years (or indeed for the past 20 days), we cannot make that
guarantee.
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Rates:
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1,950 euros / week
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| Extras: |
75 euros final cleaning payable
on site;
more frequent linen changes than once-weekly;
maid service if arranged
50 euros per week for air-conditioning May-Oct
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| Arrival: |
Any day of the week
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Minimum
stay: |
1 week, with extra days pro-rated
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