Our Adventures with Italian BnBs

We traveled last week through parts of the Emilia Romagna Province of Italy on our first “vacation” within our newly adopted country. Our travels by train took us first to Bologna, then Modena, and finally to Parma, staying two nights in each city, before returning home to Genoa (Genova).  This region is considered one of the top “Foodie” capitals of Italy, with delicious meats (Mortadella, Proscuitto di Parma, etc.), Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, wines, and the fabulous 12 and 25 year aged Balsamic vinegar! The history extends back to before the Romans built the Via Emilia (Via Aemilia) in 187 or 189 BC (sources vary on dates). The construction of the early churches and Cathedrals started in the 900s and continued through the 1400-1500s. The art work is exquisite with works by Correggio, Raphael, Da Vinci,  etc. We explored and walked for miles, and eating and tasting our way through each city.

Accommodations

I thought I would share a little about our choices of accommodations in each city.  Please note that these were our experiences based on our choices selected from an online booking service. This is not meant to be an overall representation of BnBs in Italy. I’m not giving the specific names of the places where we stayed. I recommend you do your own homework and read carefully the details, look at the photos, and read others’ ratings and comments before selecting your own.

The accommodations we chose in each town were similarly priced (off-season) for approximately 90-100 €/night and located mostly near the historic centers of the towns, but close enough for us to walk to the train stations (usually within 1 mile or less).  A city tax is also required and not included in booking cost. It is usually inexpensive (less than 8 € per night on this trip) but sometimes required in cash. Check-in times were all 3 pm (15:00 in Italy), which required us to also use a luggage storage service upon arriving (check out Radical Storage or other available storage services for information). Note: In Italy they require a pre-check in at each hotel or BnB in order to obtain each guests’ pertinent information including passport number, etc.

Bologna

The BnB in Bologna was the most challenging of the places we had selected. It was closer to the train station but farther away from the historic center. The street was a bit sketchy to me, but proved to be fine except a bit noisy. We received instructions by email and by text. They read a bit more like clues to an Escape Room rather than helpful information! Finding the door took a little while. It was actually a heavy wooden garage door with an inserted wooden door. We punched in the instructed code into a panel to the left of the door. It took a few tries. Upon proper coding, a loud electronic buzz indicated the lock had been opened and we pushed on the knob (didn’t turn) to open the door inward. There was an 8-inch threshold that we had to step over and lift our luggage over. Once inside we closed the door back and it immediately locked. We were in an outdoor, rustic, courtyard parking area. The instructions said enter the doorway to the left. This led to two half flights of stairs up to the 1^st floor (Note: in Italy the ground floor is “0”). On the first floor we observed a tiny one-person elevator that led to the upper floors as well as stairs. That would have been challenging for anyone with mobility issues, but not an issue for us. We decided to hoof it up to the 3^rd floor. Once there, we had to enter another code to enter the main lobby for the suites. It was cold outside, in the 40s F. Inside the lobby, it was already toasty (hot). The instructions said to call for the room number. The lady who answered didn’t speak English very well, and our Italian is minimal, but we managed to understand that we were in the room marked “1”.  All of the suite doors (there were three more) had keys in the lock. “Hmm,” I thought to myself, “Didn’t seem particularly secure.”  The key was a very plain looking skeleton key. After struggling a few tries with the key, Steve insisted on taking over, he struggled a little turning the key right and left at different depths and finally it opened. We carried our luggage into the room and both of us almost tripped on the 4” step-down threshold to the room that extended a few feet past the entrance door and to the adjacent bathroom doorway. Major tripping hazard during our stay, especially for early morning jaunts to the bathroom in the dark.

The small room was kind of cute, in a faux, French colonial/eclectic way, with a little canopy over the bed. The walls were dark gray with a touch of goldish streaking. There was a small velvety couch, but very uncomfortable. The tiny side tables had lantern style lamps that left no room for anything else, and Steve’s side lamp didn’t work. There was nowhere else to put the luggage, so we placed them open on the sofa.

The bathroom had looked like a kind of grotto in the photos, but in reality was a black painted windowless small room with black and gold fixtures, black walls and black floor. The shower was rock lined and very small. If you dropped the soap, you could barely kneel to pick it up.

The bed was just plain hard. We struggled to sleep the first night, tossing and turning, and were awakened quite early by very loud street cleaning machines. We reminded ourselves that we were there to enjoy Bologna, not the room, and enjoy it we did! For more information on what we did in Bologna see my other posting.

Room rating: 2.5 – 3 out of 5

 

Modena

Our accommodations in Modena were definitely better than the where we stayed in Bologna.  We were a bit farther from the train station, but closer to the historic center and other points of interest. We were able to walk with our luggage to where we stored it for several hours in the historic center. Then later, we walked to our BnB, about a mile and half from the train station.

The instructions for our BnB in Modena were much easier to follow. We were sore from our explorations in Bologna, so we chose the elevator option. This BnB was actually a studio apartment, much more spacious. It was clean and light, and had a full kitchen and large bathroom with a nice shower.  The bed was large and quite comfortable. The street we were on was surprisingly quiet, since we discovered we were near several beer/brewery, and Irish pub type establishments. We discovered the first morning, that although there was everything you needed to make coffee, there were no cups!  Not a problem, there were several cafes close by with excellent coffee. We also realized there was only one partial roll of toilet paper, we easily purchased more at a nearby market.

We loved our time in Modena, for more information on what we did there, see my other posting.

Room rating: 4 out of 5.

 

Parma

Of all of our stays, this was the nicest accommodations on our trip. I had forgotten to do the pre check-in process, so there were some stressful minutes completing that task in the rain under an overhang down the street from where we were staying. Once completed, we received an email with instructions. We stood in the rain in front of the door to the suites, very frustrated. The code was not working. I searched the information that I had received and finally found a number to call. The person on the other end did not speak English, but I was able to indicate where we were staying and she was looking up some info, then the line went dead. She had hung up.  I searched the information I received again, and called back trying to explain that the code wasn’t working. She haltingly asked if I used WhatsApp…?  “Si!” She hung up again.  I looked at Steve.  Then I looked at WhatsApp. Nothing had come through. We were very frustrated.  We stood there waiting and trying to think what we could do. Then I checked WhatsApp again. A few messages had come through with photos and codes.  “Yay!” We had a new code for the entry door…it worked!  We entered a long white-marbeled corridor then found a small open courtyard to left, but no other doors. We continued down the corridor a little and saw stairs going up on the right and an elevator on the left.  Need I say it? We took the elevator to the 3^rd floor (4^th in US). 

The initial wrong code they had given us was actually for a lock box next to our door that held a key fob.  The key fob was held to an oval receiver on the door and we heard the lock open. We pushed the gold knob and the door opened on a long white marbled entry corridor with a gold coat rack and umbrella holder. We promptly took off our wet coats and hung them up and placed our wet umbrella in the holder.  We rolled our luggage down the entry hall which led into a very modern, open concept living room with fully equipped kitchen area. Past the kitchen was the door to a very modern bathroom with blue-ish marbled shower and vanity with a large mirror, modern lights, a farm sink, toilet and bidet. The only drawback, essentially no counter space (a problem when doing make-up, hair styling, etc). The bedroom was nicely furnished, queen-ish sized bed, side tables, closet, shelves, tv, and luggage rack… all very new!

We thoroughly enjoyed Parma… for more information on what we did, see my other posting).

Room rating: 4.5 out of 5

 

Enjoying being back at our apartment in Genova!

Ciao for now!