Hotel berhampiran Esploraria, Zocca

This is quite an old fashioned hotel, in a very good way - like the hotels your parents couldn't afford to bring you to when you were a child, if you are a middle-class European. This should be a big plus to many guests, it certainly was to me. I travel a lot these days, stay in a lot of hotels and generally view them with a deeply jaded eye, it's refreshing to find one's cynicism confounded once in a while. My wife and I managed to get ourselves stranded in Bologna, after the last public transport connection to our distant residence in the mountains had been missed. We booked a suite at the last moment, it was very good value, the receptionist spoke English very well and we were treated with courtesy and respect throughout - even though we must have looked like a couple of derelicts after a day walking around in the heat. The bed was comfortable and, although the USB charger took a bit of finding (on the TV) it was definitely there. The water was hot and the whole place was sparkling clean. The old fashioned air conditioning worked, properly, which is unhappily not always the case these days. The breakfast was excellent too. We were called a taxi and went on our way well satisfied. If you're looking for something up to the moment and cutting edge, this is not for you. To me and people like me, it is a breath from an older, better time - shining like a good deed in a naughty world. For the avoidance of doubt, I liked it.

We stayed here one night as part of our visit to the region near Modena. It started off badly - we’d booked through ********** and a couple of days before we received a threatening automated email saying we needed to complete a form with all of our personal details including passport info/ dates of birth/ a photo of each of us holding our passport/ contact info etc… or we would not receive the email about how to check in. We filled out the form, and even though it said it didn’t need all of the info for the kids, it then wouldn’t let us submit without it. We complied and then received another email later with a link to the check in info. When we tried to just use maps to google and navigate to “Ca' Palazzo Malvasia” google said “permanently closed”. We put in the address to the place per the ********** booking confirmation and it took us through about an hours with of tiny windy backroads through the countryside that were 2 way but were the size of a one way street - terrifying! We arrived at the address but whilst the gate looked the same, the keypad and signs on it were different from the photo provided of the gates in the link to the “check in info”. There was no phone number in the link, so we were very panicked - in the middle of the forest and lost with no number. We tried to ask a neighbour, but we got more lost. We eventually found a contact number on ********** and got some more info and found the place. I think there may be 2 entrances which caused the confusion. When we arrived the place around 7pm and it felt very creepy. It was a totally empty castle in the middle of a dark forest with no one else there. We used the key code to enter and lights turned on as we walked through and found our room. Once we got to the room, it was large, clean and nice with comfy beds, wifi and a good bathroom. I contacted the same person again with a couple of questions and they were very responsive. We slept well. There was a tiny bar fridge in the room and a communal kitchen used for breakfast, but this fridge was pretty full so we didn’t use it to store our food. Later on more people arrived at the castle and it was much less creepy. In the morning there was a buffet breakfast, it was mainly lots of different cakes/cereals/ yoghurt. No fresh fruit.

It is very difficult to write a review of this place, because it was chosen for me as part of a tour and not by me. The hotel itself is lovely, the staff is very friendly and attentive and obviously the spa services are a treat. Loved the spa pool itself after a day of sight seeing. My only drawback, as it is with most hotels these days, is that they use very firm mattresses and theirs killed my back. I wish hotels offered different types of mattresses per floor and gave you a choice. If you were looking to stay off the beaten path, then Porretta Terme could be a good choice: it's a very quaint little town along the Reno river with a variety of shops and restaurants and has some great street art. Having said all this, as a person who was in Italy for the first time, I found that staying in a place that was about a hour and a half away from both Florence and Bologna by both car and train to be a little problematic, especially when there is a high speed train between Bologna and Florence that only takes a half hour. I felt a bit trapped staying so far outside the cities and would have stayed in Bologna if I had it to do over again. I find it's better to stay in a central city and travel outside of it than the other way around. But a more seasoned Italy traveller might prefer Porretta Terme.