We also stayed at the Westin Excelsior (on SPG points of course) last year and also had a beautiful room with a huge balcony overlooking the Arno. (maybe they have a room just for people like us ) Hotel was very nice and we had absolutely no issues even though there was a employee strike on one of the days that we stayed. Funny story...I had told the SPG Plat. concierge that it was our anniversary when I made the reservations and they had a bottle of bubbly and a nice card in the room for us when we arrived. Card said "Congrats on your anniversary and welcome to the Westin.....Mr. and Ms. christianj! We got a good kick out of it. Would go back in a heartbeat and it was the highlight of our 3 city tour (Park Hyatt in Milan and Westin Excelsior in Rome) of Italy. Paying for the place could be a budget breaker if you don't have SPG points.