Piccolo Imperiale

We found bedbugs on the bed as soon as my partner and I checked in. When we went back to the concierge, they had just left the building for no apparent reason. The shower and walls were filthy too. I wouldn’t recommend staying here.

Christopher is a real gem. He looks after the guests and the place like it’s his own home, which it partly is, since he’s been there six days a week for six years. We’d definitely come back. The room was cleaned daily, and we had everything we needed. It’s a guesthouse rather than a luxury hotel, but we felt at home. The bus stops right outside and the metro is a 10-minute walk away. There’s also a drinking water fountain on the street, so you can refill a bottle instead of buying them again and again. We could have used a few more hangers in our room for clothes, though. We really enjoyed our stay at piccolo imperiale.

The online pictures gave us a very different impression of Piccolo Imperiale. Our room didn’t look like the photos, and many of the nicer shots were of nearby buildings rather than the hotel itself. That makes the place seem better than it is. There was also a strong paint smell in our room. The hotel said the rooms had been painted a month earlier, but it still smelled bad, as though the windows hadn’t been opened to air them out. It made us uncomfortable and worried about our health, and the smell can make you feel sick. Be careful when booking.

We weren’t given the Wi-Fi details, and the internet was too slow for the work we needed to do. The shower was tiny, nothing like the photos, and it flooded. Our room was right by the kitchen, where breakfast prep made noise before 8 every morning. At 7:30 on our last day, the housekeeper had a loud conversation outside our door and woke me up. The blanket looked years old and as if it hadn’t been washed in years. Today there was a strong cigarette smell, and no one was there or answering the phone. We’d told them clearly when we were arriving, but still waited almost 30 minutes outside for someone to let us in. Other guests were waiting at the door too. It’s not really a hotel, and there’s no one at a front desk. The place was hard to find without proper signs. We weren’t happy with the stay and would have booked a real hotel or somewhere with self check-in instead.