We stayed at the San Ranieri in August, as we drove to Pisa for one day to visit the leaning tower.

The San Ranieri hotel is a 7-10 minute drive away from the Piazza dei Miracoli.

The building is simply beautiful, especially at night when light up in different colours. It is quite an extrem design-hotel.

Check-In was convenient and quick. The concierge was also eager to recommend places such as restaurants and stores.

The rooms was simple yet l=very nicely designed. The size was everage. The kingsize bed was very confortable and the bed sheet felt great. The bathroom was small and only had a shower (large shower). I was not too fond of the floor (not sure was material it was, but if was some synthetic coating).

The hotel has a couple of very nice balconies on the second floor with grass on the floor. Again, I must stress that this hotel was very well designed and is simpky beautiful.

I found this hotel to be extremely sterile, uppity, super ultramodern and eccentric, not what I am use to while visiting Italy.

We were not greeted at the front desk but stared at. The desk clerk treated us in a bored and tired attitude. Without any direction or assistance from the clerk, we found our room thru a dimly lit hallway. The room was nice just totally unexpected for Italy. The bathroom was bright orange with glowing lights that never turned off. The room itself was white and silver and the furniture was glossy black. On the outside of the hotel the lighting changes from orange, blule, green, purple and pink.

The "american bar" was comfortable with long white settes and a flat screen tv, the table was long and too low to set a drink on. I will say that the snacks were outstanding, not just peanuts and chips, but kabobs and bruschettes of raw salmon, tuna, fruits, cheeses and olives. After our first drink order was delivered we were asked to sign our bill, when we asked to start a tab, the bartender said we could have another bill...........

We dined in the hotel restuarant out of necessity. The hotel is really too far away from everything and anything. Be aware that there are TWO menus. There is a small slip of paper inside one of the brochures in your room that offers more reasonably priced and typical Italian selections. The menu the waiters offers is twice the price and offers food that are odd choices. The wine selection was surprisingly good. The atmosphere was sterile and cold. The furniture is white and chrome with white gauzy drapes to seperate different areas of the dinning room

The buffet breakfast was plentiful. It offered a wide selection of breads, pastries, cereals, eggs, bacons, coldcuts, cheeses, , fruits, jams and spreads. They do not offer a personal pot of coffee or tea for your table.

Although I can't say I disliked this place, it just wasn't to my liking.

More importantl, the hotel is way too far from the train station, the airport, the tower, local restuarants and shopping.

The good points:
This hotel is interesting and modern as far as the architecture and rooms are concerned. Our room was very clean and the breakfast buffet was good.

The bad points:
It is far from the tower (which is pretty much the only thing to see in Pisa). We had to take taxis which got kind of pricey, and they are also hard to come by in Pisa. You can't just flag them down - you actually call the taxi company - which is difficult if you don't have a cell phone or speak Italian or know how to use their pay phones.

The man working the reception desk was snobby and rude. He condescendingly told us we couldn't just "wave our hands" to get a taxi "like they do in New York". He also did not offer or even mention that the hotel has complementary shuttle service - which we read later in our info booklet in our room. Never smiled once.

The doors must be made of cardboard because we could hear every sound coming from the hallway as if the people were standing at the foot of our bed. To make it worse, our room was on the end next to the metal door leading into our hallway, which slammed shut each time someone went through it.

Lastly, the beds were very hard, not comfy at all.

Overall it was okay - I mean, it was very clean - which goes a long way in my book. But I didn't sleep at all due to the noise and uncomfortable bed.

My wife and I stayed here for one night in December 2007. We booked the hotel through Expedia, and paid about $120 for the night.

The hotel is near to the airport, and takes about 10 minutes by taxi. This costs about 10-12 euros (depending on traffic).

The hotel has an interesting design theme and looks quite funky, with the lights outside changing every 30 seconds. The inside is equally interesting, with a minimalist theme. My wife and I really liked it.

The young lady at the front-desk was superb. Always polite and helpful, and made us feel very welcome. She gave us information on how to get to town, assisted with buying bus tickets, allowed us to leave our bags there for the day after checking out (as our flight was at night), and booked the shuttle for us to get back to the airport.

We got a room on the ground floor. The hallway has some interesting decorations, and felt clean and modern. The room itself was nice, with a decent amount of space, lots of mirrors and the same modern design as the rest of the hotel.

The room was quite big and had plenty of lighting. There was an LCD TV mounted into the mirror which was nice, and has various channels, though the only one in English was CNN.

The bathroom is a nice size, and has the usual amenities. The shower had a small leak in the pipe, but worked really well and didn't cause any problems - though a sign says you shouldn't use it between 3am-4am due to risk of thermic shock (!)

The city centre isn't too far from the hotel, and takes about 15 minutes on the bus, with the bus stop a few minutes walk away. In the daytime, buses 13, 14 and Lam Blue can be used, and at night, bus number 22.

You can buy tickets from the hotel for 90 cents, and also at the machine, though the machine at the bus stop near the hotel appeared to be broken, so you may want to buy them from the hotel before leaving.

The leaning tower and other historic sites are about a 15-20 minute walk from the last bus stop, through the market where there are lots of shops and stalls. There's also a great pizza place near the last bus stop (I think it's called Filipo), with reasonably priced food and good service.

Overall, we liked this hotel and would stay there again.