Brenta Milano

This is a small hotel, and there are a number of aspects that I didn't find detailed in earlier reviews, so I thought it would be good to write my own. First, the hotel has only 12 rooms, six on the first floor and six on the second floor. Since it's in Europe, the ground floor counts as Floor 0. There is no elevator, so everyone needs to climb one or two flights of stairs to their room. In my case, rather than have me make two trips, the receptionist carried my suitcase to the second floor. Upon arrival, I thought I might have made a big mistake: I could not find a thermostat for the A/C. It was not at all auspicious that temps were predicted to rise to 93F/34C. Eventually I found a remote, but I did not know that I needed to aim it at the unit high on the wall. I discovered that only after nothing turned on for a couple of hours. There are a couple of wifi networks. The 5G network worked fine for me, but I had difficulty connecting on my phone (no problems on my tablet or laptop). While the bed was big enough for two people, I would have felt pretty cramped with two people in my room. There wasn't much room to move around. The shower was quite small, about 30 in./75-80 cm. on a side. I'm not big (BMI about 20), but it was difficult for me to soap up and rinse off without hitting a wall. Note that I didn't see any other rooms; the showers in the other rooms may have been larger. Towels were changed, and the room was made up, daily. The safe confused me. There were no printed instructions. It requires a 5-digit code to open and close. I was trying 4-digit codes like I've used for almost every other hotel safe, and I got it in a mode where it locked me out for 5 minutes because of "too many errors." I got someone from the desk to come and show me. My room was very quiet, and the blinds were very effective against the 5 AM midsummer sunrise. The bed was quite comfortable. I saw other review(s) criticizing the breakfast. Don't expect scrambled eggs and sausage, but I thought there was a lot of variety and a lot of choices every day. One limitation is that it doesn't officially open till 7 AM, so if you have to leave early, you may miss it. One of the best things about the hotel is that it is right across the street from a 24-hour Carrefour Market. I bought fruit, yogurt, and granola bars there a couple of times, as well as a cooler bag to take on an excursion. I even found a pair of shorts that I needed after discovering that our conference venue was not A/Cd. One of the worst things is that despite having electronic locks and plastic key cards, they are still using the system where guests need to leave their key at the desk when leaving the hotel. "What if you lose it?" I was asked. I should think they could just make another one. I suppose that, with just 12 rooms, a finder could just do an exhaustive search for where the key worked. But (s)he would have to get past the front desk first. They told me that the receptionist would recognize all their guests. But with 3-4 people working the front desk, it's hard to believe that all guests would immediately be identified as such. Yes, I would definitely stay there again. It saved a lot of money vs. the bigger hotels, and it was very conveniently located close to a Metro stop ... the "one minute" I read in other reviews may be an exaggeration, but two minutes is quite reasonable. When you are arriving for the first time, make sure to exit at the Via le Brenta sign; if you do that, you'll see the blue "Hotel" sign ahead when you emerge. Otherwise, it's hard to know which way to turn.