Albergue San Bruno

The owners are friendly, though their welcome felt a bit artificial to me. At 15€ for a pilgrim bed, I thought this place was overpriced. We’d been told we could have two lower beds if they were free because we couldn’t sleep on the top bunks. When we arrived, at least 6-7 beds were open, but they still wouldn’t give us the second lower bed. Luckily, two kind Norwegian women let us use theirs. You have to go outside for both the toilet and showers. I wouldn’t recommend it for that price.

The freshly prepared pilgrims meal was the best part of my stay, served with typical Italian pride. The facilities are separate from the rooms, but that didn’t cause me any trouble. I really enjoyed being here.

There aren’t many places to eat in this small town, so they offer dinner for 14€ and breakfast for 4€. The pasta was very good, as you’d expect with Italian hosts, but the main course was disappointing, just a thin slice of meat and a little salad. The outdoor spot for handwashing laundry was handy, and there’s also a washer and dryer for an extra fee. My bed in a shared room cost 14€, and the friendly hosts kept the rooms and bathrooms clean. I was upstairs, where there were no bunk beds, which was the one advantage of that room. It was a chilly night with no heating. I wore two layers and slept under my own sheet set and down blanket, plus their thin blanket. The mattresses are thin and uncomfortable. There’s no bathroom upstairs, so I had to go down and outside in the rain to reach the ground floor toilet during the night. I later heard another guest was told she’d need to pay for another bed to get an extra blanket. The showers were cold while I was there. Maybe they’d been warmer earlier in the afternoon, but other guests complained about the cold too. It’s a somewhat functional hostel for the price, but you get what you pay for.

The balcony is lovely for spending an afternoon, definitely a plus. But don’t book a dorm bed without a sleeping bag rated to 5 degrees: there’s no heater or blanket in the dorm. If you pay for a private room, you get both a blanket and a heater, enough to leave you hot and sweaty.