The Delle Arti Design Hotel is located very close to the main square in the city center of Cremona. I did still however have some trouble finding it with all the strange small roads (many one-way) in the old city center. The location is however hard to beat if you wish to be in the center of Cremona.
The hotel has an impressive all black facade and the reception area also is very nice. The reception staff were most pleasant and they spoke excellent English (not always the case in Italy). I had a room on the first floor - unless you carry a lot of luggage I would recommend the stairs. The lifts are incredible slow but the stairs are a bit difficult to find.
Once you are at your floor it will be completely dark but there is no cause for concern. Once you take a step the corridor is automatically lit - they appear to have placed more sensors in the corridors now since I did not encounter the same problems that a few other guests noted in reviews.
The corridors do perhaps appeal to some people from a design perspective - to me it seemed more as if they carpet on the walls. The rooms are fairly large. The room I stayed in had a large bed, a desk and two chairs. There is a minibar and a safe.
Everything was pretty new but a few things could have been better. The bathroom was very fresh and nice, soap, shower gel, shampoo etc was of course provided but there was also a shoe shining set which I find convenient. The bath tub with shower was nice from a design perspective but the lack of a full covering glass (it covers about 2/3rds of the bath tub) made it almost impossible to not get water on the floor.
The TV was pretty small and the picture quality was not the best. The selection of channels in English was very poor (1 or 2 depending on time of day). Another thing that could be improved is that the information on Internet access is poor. Internet access via cable is free, you do however have to ask for the network cable at the reception. There is €20 deposit which feels a bit strange (they have the credit card number already). There is wireless in the building but that is not included (separate charge of around €10 for 1 hour if I remember correctly).
The brochure in the room also promised that a bathrobe would be in the room for use in the relax/fitness area. It was however easy to get from the reception. There is a nice fitness area at the -1 floor. There is also an art gallery there where breakfast is also served. The breakfast is not the best breakfast I had but to be in Italy it was rather good. There is a good selection of different bread, pastries and also yogurt, cereal, fruit, coffee/tea etc so it is quite sufficient.
The reception staff were very friendly and had a lot of good ideas for different restaurants in the area. Taking the very reasonable price in the account it sums up to a good hotel (between a 3 and a 4 but I am feeling generous). read more
