Hotel Serena, Rome

...and came up with this hotel – Albergo Serena. At 28 Euros / night for a city center location, it sounded perfect. The website even had a pretty picture of its gardens, and it figured in more than one guide book to the region as being an ok place to stay.

I arrived late at night so grabbed a taxi to the hotel. The driver knew exactly where it was without needing the address – always a good sign. I was greeted by a well ...
...only trouble being that the hotel was deserted. I eventually found a bell (after, I admit it, attempting to ring the ornamental one on display there) and following the shrill squeal, a very old man appeared. I wasn’t sure if he lived there or owned the place, because the building looked like it was a home as well as a hotel, but it turned out to be his place. He was not only the proprietor, but the receptionist, book keeper and porter (yeah, ... more

.... Mind The Mossies Don’t Bite

Do you know where the first half of that phrase comes from? I read recently that it stems from Shakespeare’s time, when you would tighten the mattress on a bed with ropes to make it nice and firm, thus ensuring a good night’s sleep. Just thought you’d like to know.

There’s a choice you might have to make in life when it comes to choosing hotels. Either travel once or twice a year and stay in the plushest of the plush, or go on lots of jaunts and stay in, well, less plush places. Dumps even. I choose the latter and while it usually doesn’t work out too badly, sometimes it does. Last week I was in Italy for a few days. I had free Ryanair flights, and wanted equally attractive accommodation, at least in terms of price. I searched around a bit and came up with this hotel – Albergo Serena. At 28 Euros / night for a city center location, it sounded perfect. The website even had a pretty picture of its gardens, and it figured in more than one guide book to the region as being an ok place to stay.

I arrived late at night so grabbed a taxi to the hotel. The driver knew exactly where it was without needing the address – always a good sign. I was greeted by a well lit entrance way down a small back street in Pisa, the only trouble being that the hotel was deserted. I eventually found a bell (after, I admit it, attempting to ring the ornamental one on display there) and following the shrill squeal, a very old man appeared. I wasn’t sure if he lived there or owned the place, because the building looked like it was a home as well as a hotel, but it turned out to be his place. He was not only the proprietor, but the receptionist, book keeper and porter (yeah, right), and he was the only member of staff I saw the whole time I was there. After checking my name and confiscating my passport, he showed me up to my 2nd floor room.

My first impressions were good. It was extremely large as hotel rooms go, and well equipped, with a table, two chairs, a bed, a bed-side table, a set of shelves, a large unit with drawers and a wardrobe, plus a full length mirror. There was a sink in the corner with another mirror, and 2 lamps as well as the main light. The décor was plain – white walls, tiled floors. Net curtains covering the window, with smart green shutters out-side. After having been traveling for 6 or 7 hours, it seemed perfect.

But first impressions are just that – *first* impressions. And they can, and do, often change. The minute I unpacked, things started to go wrong. Here’s a list of the worst / funniest:

X I wanted to have a shower. The hotel doesn’t offer en-suite rooms, but has communal bathrooms in each wing. I was only sharing my bathroom with two other rooms because of the layout, and I never had any problems getting in when I wanted to. The bathroom was pretty clean, and had a toilet (broken seat, meaning you could fall off if you were half asleep), a bidet, a sink and a large shower-area – a tiled mini-room with a shelf and a shower head, but no shower curtain. Lovely and large, it would have been perfect if you wanted to do rude things in there, but I didn’t. I wanted a shower which, it seemed, was a bit of a problem. The water pressure was the lowest I’ve ever experienced, and either all the hot water had gone, or it never existed, because the water was icy cold. During the 4 nights I stayed there, I got one warm (not hot) shower. One. And I tried morning and evening each day.

X My bed was small. It was a single bed which I was expecting, but a very tiny one. Only just long enough for me (and I’m only 5, 2) and rather narrow. Worse than any hall of residence bed I’ve ever had the misfortune to sleep in. The sheets, while perfectly clean, were a little odd. I had a flowered cover, a brown blanket and a patterned sheet that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a children’s nursery. The bed creaked and the headboard banged when I tried to sit up and read.

X Once I’d got settled in bed, which obviously took a while given the conditions, I naturally enough wanted to sleep. Problem number 3 – my room overlooked a courtyard. In the courtyard there was a bar. In the bar there was a music system of some kind. In the music system was a 60s tape or CD. Playing VERY loudly. Not just that night, but 3 of the 4 nights I was there. It either kept me awake for ages or, if I’d already nodded off, woke me up and kept me awake for ages. Not fun.

X In the morning I awoke to find myself covered in mosquito bites. I spent a day in Florence looking like I had mumps, the ones on my face and neck were so large. The pharmacist visibly gagged when I held out my arm and asked in best Italian if she had anything to put on them as they were itching – needless to say, I hadn’t thought I’d need my bite relief cream in the middle of November. I didn’t get bitten at any time apart from when I was in my hotel room. Even though I kept my window shut all the time, and went on a mossie killing spree (white walls really show the blood squirts, y’know) as soon as I realized, I still got bitten night after night.

X While the communal areas were cleaned daily, the individual hotel rooms weren’t, and I was left making my own bed (or not) for 4 days. The bin was also not emptied, and it was getting a bit full by the end of my stay. I could have emptied it myself but I never saw a bin downstairs and hey, I was on holiday.

X My sink was quite fun. Or not. I decided to have a wash there one night since the hot tap seemed to be working, unlike the shower next door. I filled the sink and got busy. Then I pulled out the plug and went over to my bed. Suddenly I became intensely aware of a loud dripping sound. Sure enough, the pressure of all the water suddenly draining from the sink had upset one of the pipes, and it was leaking. I quickly ran over and put the plug in a bit to slow the flow, and this seemed to work, but I was still left with a big wet patch on the carpet – the sink being the only area of the room not to have plain tiles underneath for some reason. Because of this, for the rest of my stay I was forced to leave the tap running rather than run a sink full of water. One of the theories behind the leaning tower has something to do with all the water underneath it, drained from hotels and homes in the city – so maybe we should blame the hotel for the tower continuing to lean?!?

X The hotel was, I’m sure, perfectly safe, but I never felt all that at ease in my room. There had been a brand new lock fitted but the door itself looked so old that even I could have smashed my way through it had I felt the need. The odd creak and rattle at night didn’t make me feel any more secure either. I also saw no smoke alarms anywhere.

X The words “customer service” don’t seem to apply to this hotel. In the bedroom I found a hotel-info sheet saying to ask if there was anything you required, so I did. When I paid my bill, I asked if he would order me a taxi for the morning as I had to be at Pisa airport for 6.30am – on Sundays the airport busses and trains don’t start until an hour after that. He refused, instead giving me the number of a taxi company. My Italian’s not good enough to pre-book taxis, so I left it, and did the next bets thing: woke as planned, grabbed my stuff, left and walked to the nearest fancy hotel, with 24 hr reception, where they were only too glad to call one for me.

X The hotel is advertised as being open from 8am until midnight, but several times the reception area had a “back in 5” sign up. Also, I returned from Florence late-ish, wanting to settle my bill and get my passport back. The man refused, saying it would have to be tomorrow, although it was still before 10pm.

It wasn’t all that bad, though. The location was excellent – 15 mins from the airport by taxi, and only 15 mins walk to both the main station and the tower (still leaning, but still standing). The hotel itself was clean, just a little shabby. The reception was really only there for show and I never saw the owner down there, with him preferring to stay on the first floor where his office / apartment was. The hotel had no communal areas, and breakfast is not available – luckily there are lots of bars and cafes nearby. At less than 20 quid a night you can’t really complain, but I would never stay there again, and wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re mad / broke though, and don’t fancy the youth hostel, have a look at

www.pisaonline.it/HotelSERENA/

The hotel boasts 13 rooms, a mixture of singles and twins/doubles (price for the latter being 40 Euros per night – the website says 41.20, but the little man rounds down to keep things simple – I saved a whole 1 Euro 60 cents….)

Hotel Serena
Via D.Cavalca, 45
56100 - Pisa

Tel. +39 050.580809
Fax +39 050.580809

serena.pisa@csinfo.it

I've put "others" for the facilities, and "very poor" for the food since Ciao won't let me leave them blank. Oh and I suggested this hotel, but they've put it under Rome, not Pisa. Will try and get it moved over to there.
 

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