Name: Il Sole
Address: 43 Via della Libertà, Massa Marittima, Massa Marittima, Massa Marittima, 58024, Italy
Rating: 5

Air conditioning

24-hour reception

Elevator/lift

Smoke-free property

Heating

Express check-in/check-out

All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Hairdryer

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Wardrobe/Closet

Toiletries

Rooms

Luggage storage

Telephone

Services and amenities

Breakfast

Breakfast in the room

Meals

Internet access

Internet

Car rental

Transfer

Spanish

English

Italian

Languages Spoken

No parking

Parking

Fax and copy machine

Business

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Marina Di Campo Airport

Il Sole

Massa Marittima

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

This hotel doesn’t change with the passing of the years: you get decent but near-soulless accommodations in the medieval heart of Massa Marittima. If you have a car, you also get free parking underneath the hotel, accessible from the street in the lower town that runs behind the hotel. (Warning: In high season you have to be as expert as native Italian drivers at navigating a car into a parking space seemingly smaller than the car itself.)

Breakfast is minimalist, and so is the enthusiasm of some of the staff. Wi-Fi is only in the four-seat lobby.  But we are loyalists. The Il Sole provides a basic and acceptable product—accommodations in a perfect location--at a reasonable price.

Medieval

Like the town of Massa Marittima itself, the Hotel Il Sole seems to be a place history has passed by. When it opened a quarter century ago it provided mid-range modern comfort in a historic building right in the medieval center of this charming, unspoiled town.  It can still be said to offer the basics at a reasonable price (around €60 a night during our stay).  Yes, there is electricity and hot and cold running water, and there is a breakfast service at the same dairy-bar tables and chairs the hotel offered in 1990. There is even Wi-Fi available, at no extra charge, but only in the hotel’s small lobby.

Moreover, if you are driving, the hotel offers parking in the garage at the bottom floor of the hotel, which is accessed from the narrow street running behind the hotel (the hotel is on the slope of Massa Marittima’s hill, so the rear of the building is two floors lower than the lobby entrance on Via della Libertà.)  And while Massa Marittima’s historic center is a pedestrian zone, you are permitted to drive through the Piazza del Duomo and up Via della Libertà to check in with your luggage. (When you leave, though, you should take your luggage down the elevator to the basement level and load it in your car in the garage.)

These are the reasons we tend to return to the Hotel Il Sole on our annual visits to the town--essentially price and location.  Regrettably, however, the lack of investment in upgrading guests’ bathrooms and the furnishings (both in guest rooms and public spaces) gives the guest the feeling of being in a Motel 6 or Days Inn rather than in a charming hotel in one of Tuscany’s sweetest hill towns.  Maybe the threadbare feeling will help push you out of the hotel to explore the town and the wider Maremma, which is presumably why you came to Massa Marittima in the first place. But regrttably it seems just as likely to be pushing customers to other hotel options further from the town center.

You get what you pay for--and maybe a bit less

We've stayed at the Il Sole twice. It's not luxurious, but the room was very clean and if you're on the top floor (do try to get a room there) there's a partial view as far as Elba (I'm pretty sure). There's also free parking and a nice continental breakfast, and you can get additional cappuccinos from the bar in the lobby when it's staffed. The best thing about the hotel is its wonderful location just steps from the Piazza Garibaldi - cathedral, civic museum (worth visiting!), and many pleasant restaurants, cafes, and shops. Wifi only in the lobby, but there are nice armchairs there.

wonderful location in the medieval center

We checked into this hotel in desperation as we couldn't find anywhere else affordable in the area at that time. The receptionist was not overly friendly and didn't really direct us to our room properly. The hallway to our room (when we'd worked out where it was) was dark and dingy with flickering lights and it reminded us of the hotel from the film 'The Shining'. When we got to our room on the 4th floor it was small and the interior was tired. The view from our window was the roof of an adjacent building The bathroom was clean-ish but not very welcoming and in much need of updating, in fact the whole hotel needs updating. The dining room looks like something from the 70s and we were surprised when we read another review on here saying it was built in 1990! 

We caught the lift to the wrong floor when trying to get to the reception and were greeted with another dark and dingy corridor. It felt pretty creepy and made us feel uneasy so we checked out after 15 minutes and drove to find another hotel nearby - we have stayed in some pretty random and basic places before but have never had the feeling that we wanted to leave as badly.

We feel bad because we don't really like to give negative reviews but this hotel really needs updating badly - the location is great and the fact that they have free parking is good but we wouldn't want to stay there.

We checked out after 15 minutes

We've been staying at the Il Sole every couple years since it opened around 1990.  At that time it was the trendy new hotel in the heart of Massa Marittima's medieval center.  Alas, there is little evidence of ongoing investment in the hotel in the quarter century since.  It does have all the essential amenities, but would have to be considered a no-frills hotel. Still, its location--a two-minute amble up the main street from the town's beautiful central piazza--can't be beat.  And it is priced quite reasonably.  Another plus: it has a parking garage underneath it, and we have not been charged for stashing the car there.

Il Sole

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