YellowSquare Florence
Rooftop pool, free-pasta nights, and live music — Florence's most consistent party-hostel at 9.0
Wonderful
2,671 reviews
Check availability & prices
Compare prices for YellowSquare Florence in Florence
72%
Solo travelers
88%
Would stay again
84%
Made friends here
3.2 nights
Avg. stay
Our Honest Take
From the Hostelpedia team. No BS, just real advice
YellowSquare Florence is the city's workhorse party-hostel: reliable, well-programmed, always full, and built for you to meet people without trying. The rooftop pool is not Ibiza, but it's the only hostel pool in Florence walking distance of the Duomo and the ridge view is real. Free-pasta dinner + events calendar is the whole pitch. Skip if you want the Duomo five minutes from your dorm (stay at Ostello Bello Firenze) or actual silence at night (stay at aparto Manifattura). Pick YellowSquare if you want to fall out of a hostel bar at 01:00 into a bed you still have energy to get up from tomorrow.
🎯 Insider Tips
- 1Show up to free-pasta night at 19:45, not 20:00. The queue forms fast, runs out by 20:30, and the first tables fill with the quiz and pub-crawl group that will be your night.
- 2Rooftop pool works best 16:00 to 18:00 — post-sightseeing crowd, pre-dinner, drinks order is open. It is too full at midday and too dark after 19:30.
- 3Mondays and Fridays are the pub-crawl nights. Wednesdays are live music. Thursdays are quiz. Saturdays are DJ. Pick your stay dates on the schedule if a specific vibe matters — it is not all the same every night.
- 4Don't walk the 15 minutes from Santa Maria Novella station alone at 1am with a backpack. Split an Uber (5 EUR) or grab the night bus. The stretch through Viale Redi is fine by day, empty and badly lit by night.
🔥 Why We Love It
Rooftop pool + sun deck with ridge-line views over Florence — the only hostel pool in the centre walking zone
Free-pasta dinner nightly around 20:00 — easy icebreaker, cheap base for the evening
Live events 5-6 nights a week (pub crawl, quiz, live music, DJs)
Proper guest kitchen upstairs, large enough to actually cook
6, 8 and 10-bed dorms with en-suite bathrooms — rare at this price point
📖 The Full Story
YellowSquare Florence sits on Viale Redi in the northwest corner of Santa Maria Novella, a 15-minute walk or 5 minutes on the bus to the main station. The building is purpose-built hostel: big reception-bar-restaurant combo downstairs, dorms in the upper floors, and the selling point — a rooftop deck with a small swimming pool, sun loungers, and the kind of late-afternoon crowd that turns into the first round of cocktails without anyone quite deciding to.
The restaurant-bar does a proper Italian dinner for 10-12 EUR and runs a nightly free-pasta event around 20:00 that pulls every backpacker in the building into the same room. After that, the programme runs: pub crawl Mondays and Fridays, live music Wednesdays, quiz Thursdays, DJ set Saturdays. It is not a quiet hostel.
Dorms themselves are solid: privacy curtains, reading lights, USB sockets at the head of each bed, lockable under-bed steel locker (bring a padlock or rent one at reception), en-suite private bathrooms on the 6, 8 and 10-bed rooms. The common kitchen upstairs is large enough to cook dinner without elbowing people, which is a rare feature at this scale of hostel.
The location trade-off is real: you're not in the historic centre. Walking to the Duomo takes 20-25 minutes, and the route via the station is not the most atmospheric. If your Florence is photos-of-the-centre and quiet wine bars, stay in Oltrarno. If your Florence is other backpackers, pool beers, pasta nights and a bus crawl through the city, YellowSquare is the default.
✨ The Vibes
💬 What Travelers Say
Kerianne
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · April 2026
“Organised events, reasonably priced drinks and food, good location, free pasta in the evening, rooftop terrace with a pool. The events schedule is what separates this from a regular hostel.”
Kerstin
🇩🇪 Germany · April 2026
“About 15 min walking to the main train station. Nice people and great staff, good food and nice events. Every bed has a safe and a locker (padlocks are necessary).”
Jiajia
🇫🇷 France · April 2026
“Clean room and friendly staff. Common kitchen is very useful to make your own breakfast. Very organised.”
Taylor
🇨🇦 Canada · April 2026
“The rooftop, the extra sheet for privacy, your own safe, cheap food and drinks down stairs — really appreciated. And the free pasta.”
📍 What's Nearby
Santa Maria Novella station
15 min on foot
Fortezza da Basso (fairground + expos)
8 min on foot
Mercato Centrale (food hall, open till midnight)
18 min on foot
Duomo di Firenze
22 min on foot
Airport Peretola
15 min on T2 tram + 5 min walk
Conad supermarket
3 min on foot
📋 House Rules
- •Check-in 14:00 to 23:00, check-out before 10:00
- •Quiet hours 23:00 to 08:00 on dorm floors — the bar closes at 01:00
- •Bring a padlock or rent one at reception (3 EUR)
- •Pool closed October to April, open daily 10:00 to 20:00 in season
- •Under 18 not allowed in shared dorms
From
€29/night
Compare prices across booking sites
Room Types
Bed in 10-bed mixed dorm with en-suite
€24
Biggest, cheapest room. En-suite, reading lights, USB sockets, under-bed locker.
10
Bed in 6-bed female dorm with en-suite
€29
Women-only, en-suite bathroom, same spec as mixed 6-bed.
6
Bed in 4-bed mixed dorm
€32
Smaller dorm, bathroom shared on the floor. Quieter than the 10-bed.
4
Private double room with en-suite
€85
Full double, private bathroom, desk. Same block as dorms so expect some evening noise.
2
🏠 Amenities
Don't sleep on this one
YellowSquare Florence is one of the most popular hostels in Florence. Beds fill up fast, especially during peak season. Lock in your dates now.
Check Availability Now 🔥