Hotel Best Western Plus di Cinisello Balsamo

With the complex spaghetti roads, roundabouts and construction we spent half an hour going around in circles trying to find them. We did find the Holiday Inn first and they gave us directions that almost worked. Let's start with the fine print. The hotel isn't in Monza, but in the dreary town next to it. Much of it seems industrial, warehouses and potentially polluting businesses you wouldn't want to live next to..The hotel sits next to a heavy traffic artery with plenty of truck traffic heading somewhere else. It is not a lot more attractive than much of the Bronx. Outside, the hotel looks forlorn. Inside it isn't quite as ugly with a vague atrium feel with plenty of glass and stone.. There is a large parking area behind the front, which is welcome but usually filled with seminar/convention traffic. Best Westerns are independently owned and not cookie cutter. We have always found personnel associated with the brand to be kind and helpful, and that was the case here. The hotel is very clean and our room was spacious, modern and comfortable although decorated in dormitory/institutional beige and brown. You could wake up and have no idea where you were, except for the parking lot behind. After the stressful drive, we decided to have dinner at the hotel, and it was adequate if not inspiring. Two breakfasts were decidedly more mediocre. I am depressed at how many nominally 4 star hotels use industrial grade orange juice, mediocre brand yogurts and pastries and especially weak and second rate coffee. That is inexcusable in a country that has some of the best brands in the world. Don't they know that Nescafe is awful!!! We took a cab into town to see some sights. Beware, you will probably get ripped off. The taxi meter was at 14.5 Euros when we got in; 25 Euros in the heart of the city. Perhaps it is legal for the cab to turn on the meter when they get the call. but that isn't entirely reasonable. Monza has some extraordinary ancient buildings and historical sites, and lots of ugly modern ones. On the way into town and back, we saw several miles of scruffy apartments and dozens of grassy spaces that hadn't been mowed. Of course, that isn't the hotel's fault, but why stay out there iuless you are conferencing? Candidly, I can't think of any reason to come back.