Best Western Hotel Bologna

Here's another view from Room 361, this time showing the desk opposite the bed. Although the room is almost minimalist in decor, notes of warmth include the varnished floorboards, walls in three contrasting paint colors, and a desktop of red marble.

Note the ventilation ducts in the ceiling. The hotel has central air conditioning, which worked efficiently during my visit in a July heat wave.

The wall behind the desk has both an electrical outlet and a networking outlet panel. The latter includes an Ethernet jack (left) and RCA jacks that let you watch photos or videos from your camera or laptop on the room's flat-panel TV.

In addition to the Ethernet jack, every room has a secure Wi-Fi Internet connection. (The front desk will print a sheet with your private username and password on request.)

The Hotel Bologna has another feature that many Italian hotels lack: an electric kettle with coffee mugs and supplies.

In contrast to the ultra-contemporary bedroom, the bathroom of room 361 is decorated with blue-and-white striped tile that has an almost handpainted look when you examine it closely.

Another nice touch is the retractable clothesline over the bathtub--an accessory that makes life easier for travelers in the drip-dry laundry era.

Out in the corridor, an upbeat sign on a mirror--in English--helps you start your day on a positive note, though it might leave you perplexed on a rainy morning.

Downstairs, you'll find a 24-hour reception desk and a comfortable lounge with a travelers' book exchange. (Just leave a book for each volume that you take.)

A buffet breakfast is included in the hotel's rate. It's served in DaTura, which becomes a gourmet restaurant at night. (The hotel also has an informal "DaTura Fast Lunch" restaurant and a bar that offers drinks, Venetian-style cicchetti, and room service.)

The breakfast buffet is less expansive than its counterparts in Switzerland or Germany (or even at some cosmopolitan Italian hotels), but it offers a reasonable assortment of breads, pastries, fruits, and items such as cheese, cold cuts, scrambled eggs, and bacon.

Finally, these pictures show two views of the Best Western Hotel Bologna: (top) from the Hotel Plaza across the Via Piave, and (bottom) from the main entrance of the Mestre Railroad Station, which is at the other end of the zebra crossing in the lower photo.

In the photos, you can see that the hotel, which is more than 100 years old, has two wings: the older north wing (behind the flags and the "Hotel Bologna" sign), and the newer south wing facing the station. The floors in each wing are on different levels, so the elevators have two doors and two sets of buttons for every floor.

For guaranteed lowest available rates and other information, see Booking.com's Best Western Hotel Bologna pages.