Description: Hotel Bologna is a large hotel located in an elegant palazzo on a reasonably quiet street about 10 minutes walk from the train station and another 10 minutes walk from the historic centre (20 minutes from Piazza dei Miracoli).
I have seen complaints about noise during the night, but our room was perfectly quiet (it faced to the back of the building) and we didn't have any problems with that (and we always take earplugs anyway).
The room itself was pleasant enough, although not particularly big. The bed was wide and comfortable, the rest of the décor a little bit stark perhaps (stone floors and dark green stained wooden slats), but I think it was partially to do with the season - in the summer it would be perfect.
There was enough room for clothes in the cupboards and the desk was handy as we stayed a week. There was a wall mounted TV screen but as we hardly watched any, I can't comment on the choice of channels: BBC World was certainly there.
The en suite bathroom was adequate, modern and very clean, with good if not particularly spacious shower.
We stayed in Pisa's hotel Bologna for a week in December 2007. The exchange rate was still pleasant and thus our finally negotiated rate of 70 Euro per night worked out as pretty cool 50 GBP, which for a nominally 4 star (in fact, a decent 3 star) wasn't bad at all.
The communal areas of the hotel were very pleasant: a nice lobby, comfy and good looking leather sofas and chairs, a couple of Internet desks (I imagine these would be very busy in the summer) and a friendly, welcoming bar open daily till about 10.30 - 11pm.
All the staff members spoke good English and were pleasant and helpful. We were given advice regarding travel, restaurants and attractions and we had fun chatting to the friendly and intelligent student who worked behind the bar.
Breakfasts in Italian hotels can be very much hit and miss, and the one in Bologna was not bad at all - a good selection of bread and pastries, cheese, cold meats and fruit; nothing particularly glorious but perfectly adequate. There were also good free snacks provided by the bar - parmesan cubes, capers and the like.
All in all I enjoyed our stay in the Bologna, and would come back again, especially out of season when the rates are lower and the whole thing is rather low key. It's a large hotel and bound to get very busy in the summer, so I am not sure how well it would cope then.
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