I travel around Italy staying in many varied types of accommodation to make sure you, our clients only stay in the best. I stayed recently in a beautiful place with a sea view with air con in midsummer – the photos were lovely and I had forgotten why I don’t like Bed and Breakfasts.
However it turned out to be a horrific experience due to lack of sleep caused by the fellow guests and street noise. The pain I suffer sometimes… to check out accommodation for Passion for Italy clients!! PFI Clients please remember this ha ha!!
Most Bed and Breakfasts are usually normal houses, private residences or apartments often with the owner living in the same building and sometimes (god forbid) in the next bedroom. Yes they are often cheaper than hotels and I do love them for the fact that you get to meet the real Italian people and fellow travellers. The continental breakfast are usually much better than a hotel but…. there are a few factors to consider….!!
There is no double glazing on the windows like hotels. Hotels are usually constructed or renovated to be a certified hotel with wall reinforcements or sound proofing in a historical building and usually new glass in the windows with double glazing for protection from street noise in the major cities.
However none of these things exists in normal B&Bs as they are just like your home and guess what – the other guests can treat them like a hotel and go to town with noise forgetting – hello! – that you are in the next bedroom trying to sleep, especially if the landlords are not in the property!!
Some of the unfortunate experiences I have experienced are the following:-
-The landlady only gave me one key for the door but instead there were two locks. As I am an early riser and like to go out for a walk to explore the village – she obviously was not and I could not get out of the house and had to wait for three hours with nothing to do until landlady woke up.
-The landlady told us as we were going out to dinner at 8.30 pm that we had to be home at 10.30 pm as that is when she goes to bed and she did not want to be woken up. I felt like I was locked in a convent which made me want to go out dancing all night!!
– I was the only guest (it turned out) staying with a male host in a Bed and Breakfast near Roma Termini – chosen for convenience when just travelling in and out overnight. The room he had put me in, I later discovered had a sliding door that lead to his bedroom, that could not be locked from my end. As I only discovered this later in the evening having flown 30 hours from Australia, it was too late to change rooms or escape and I had to stack many chairs agains the door so it could not be opened. This was a quite scary experience. I was too jet lagged at the time to leave!
– At another B&B, there were guests arriving home switching lights on at 1.00 am in the morning and there was someone shaving his head for hours, it seemed, in the bathroom next to my room with an electronic shaver during siesta time. Mamma mia! Now if you have an enemy I recommend this as a form of torture or as a technique to get rid of unwanted guests!
– At another there were no screens on the windows. As I like fresh air I had opened the window and arrived home after dinner to find the whole room infested with a thousand mosquitos.
– No air conditioning and no fans in summer and the traffic outside was so noisy that one could not leave the window open so I nearly died from the heat!!- these things are never written on the website. In Italy in summer one really needs air con!!
You can rest assured that Passion for Italy only chooses B&Bs where these things do not happen. We only work with a few that are high quality and beautifully designed and those that are even better than hotels. And yes I have stayed there to check them out and in our B&Bs I have not suffered at all in fact they are extremely pleasant experiences!!
Contact us for the best accommodation in Italy.