My travel buddy and I stayed at Hotel Cinquantatre (Hotel 53) two times during our most recent visit to Italy for a total of 5 nights - our first 3 nights (May 2-5) and our last 2 (May 21-23). We paid an average of $150 US per night including the city tax.
It's a narrow hotel and very easy to miss. All you see, as you walk down the street, is single glass door, I don't recall if there was a sign. It has an equally tiny lift, I'm a woman of size and fit just fine along with my rolling suitcase but I would not want to take the lift with another person. It's a short flight of stairs from the reception desk to the lift. Breakfast is served on the very top floor which the lift doesn't reach but you can take the lift as high as it goes and walk up one flight to reach the breakfast room and lovely terrace.
We requested two beds (singles) when making our reservation. The room is not large but it was fine for our needs. My travel buddy had a large suitcase that took up quite a bit of room, we placed it on a desk-like table. My case, which is a large carryon, was easy to place on a luggage stand. In addition to the beds, table and luggage stand, the room had a chair, nightstands and a large armoire which contained drawers, a place to hang some clothes, an extra blanket and pillows, a minibar fridge, and a tiny TV -which we never used.
We preferred the room we had during our first stay (202) as it had a tiny balcony with french doors and a bathtub shower. Upon returning for our second stay at the end of our trip we had the room just below (102) - the room had a nearly identical layout however there was no balcony and the bathroom was smaller with just a shower - perfectly decent sized even for my plus size body.
There is always one person at reception, a revolving sea of friendly faces, you leave your key with them when going out and retrieve it upon your return. Most were quite friendly and all are bilingual. Our very favorite staff person was Patricia, she makes the best coffee while her smile and very presence is a breath of fresh air.
Breakfast is included in the cost of the room, it was very similar to most of the breakfasts we experienced throughout our time in Italy. A selection of cheese, meat, cereal, yogurt, sweet pastry, sliced bread, juice, coffee, and they also had hard boiled eggs which I truly appreciated.
When we checked in for the last two nights of our travels we did experience one small hiccup, the bed was made up as a double rather than the two beds we requested. It took a few hours but they remedied the situation easily enough.
My criteria when selecting a hotel:
Clean
2 beds
Private bath
A lift if our room was on a floor that took more than one flight of stairs to reach.
Air-conditioning
Breakfast included
Easy to reach from train, metro or bus.
Close to sights we wanted to see.
Less than $150 US if at all possible. read more