Staying at Casa Alda feels less like your traditional B&B experience. In truth, it feels more like you have been adopted by two loving Italian grandparents, and by the end of our stay, we were sad to leave.

The room itself is beautiful, as its antique furniture. It was also very spacious, and overlooked a line of Italian gardens. Though it was not air-conditioned, we were given a large fan to beat the heat. It is, however, on the outskirts of Florence. While you can get to the city by foot in 40 minutes, I'd recommend buying a transport pass.

Maurizio and his wife are, above all, thoughtful, to the extent where we felt like we were being absolutely spoilt towards the end of our stay. They took note of what we enjoyed eating at breakfast and catered to that. They took note that we enjoyed cold water at the end of the day. They took note that I was being bitten by mosquitoes and sent up two mosquito coils for me. My boyfriend had some minor dental issues in Florence and they provided us with some basics we needed and were always asking him how he was feeling. They happily printed out 20-something pages of documents for us when we had some insurance stuff we needed to sort out urgently.

Maurizio and his wife met us at the door when we left and gave us each hugs and kisses, and we were both a little sad to bid our adoptive nonno and nonna goodbye. I would highly recommend Casa Alda.