Villa Magiola

We could cook for ourselves in the very well equipped apartment, and there was also a shared patio for sitting outside. The owners were lovely to deal with. It's near the national park and not far from the railway station, so it's a great base for visiting Pompeii. Highly recommended. I added a photo of my beer so you can admire the tablecloth :)

Clean, modern rooms and a handy location very close to the excavations. The kitchen is well equipped, but this was a one-time stay for us. The train shakes the rooms every half hour, and smoking is allowed in rooms, so it felt stuffy when we arrived and the smell stayed in the linens. We couldn't communicate with staff without knowing Italian. Avoid a room by reception if you want quiet, you can hear lobby conversations as if there were no doors. After five minutes the shower becomes a wading pool. At least the heating works after about five minutes, which helps dry the damp towels and linens.

The room was spacious, clean, and comfortable, and the hospitality was lovely. The owner might want to rethink the separate cleaning fee, though. It's ridiculous as an extra charge, so just include it in the rate. The rooms are worth another 10 or 20 euros per night. It took us about an hour to find this charming little pension, tucked down a narrow alley behind a large gas station. Once there, the walk to the "scavi" is just a few minutes, and the "piazza" is around a quarter of an hour away. Thank you for having us!

Leaving was a problem: I left the keys in the room as I normally do in apartments, but the main building door was locked. The emergency open button didn't work, so I had to wake another guest to borrow his keys and get out. Earlier, I had to pay cash at check-in because the card reader wasn't working. I was there in low season, when no staff were on site, and had to text them to come let me into the building. The WiFi and TV stopped working half an hour after check-in. The host came the next morning, couldn't fix them, and asked me to wait an hour for the tech guy. I declined. The tech guy got them going later, but they failed again after half an hour. In response to the owner: I booked with Nives. When I arrived, Andrea met me at Nives, which looked like it was under construction, and took me to Villa Magiola. He said the POS wasn't working.