Introduction to a European Birthday Adventure
New Delhi to Abu Dhabi (Jet Airways First Class 777-300ER)
Abu Dhabi to London (Etihad First Class A380)
London to Rome (British Airways Business Class A319)
Hotel Boutique Nazional (Rome 1)
Mainson Tofani Guesthouse (Sorrento)
Best Western Plus Hotel Milton (Rome 2)
Hotel Palazzo Manfredi – Relais & Chateaux (Rome 3)
Aroma Restaurant (Rome Michelin Star Restaurant)
Rome to Paris (Air France Business Class A321)
Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel (Paris)
Paris to Doha (Qatar Airways First Class A380)
Doha to New Delhi (Qatar Airways Business Class 787-8)
Best Western Plus Hotel Milton
Rome, Italy
Post our lovely stay in Sorrento, we headed back to Rome as we would be spending my Birthday here. However, while I had wanted to spend my entire Rome trip in Hotel Palazzo Manfredi - it was full and frankly rather expensive to spend 3/4 nights in as well - so we settled for the Best Western Plus Hotel Milton (quite a mouthful) which is considered a 4 star hotel near to the Termini Roma Train Station, and it was conveniently close to the bus stops (and about a 15 minute walk to The Colosseum).
The hotel had an interesting look about it, going for a traditional gold and classy look - although it looked nice at first, it slowly because tacky as the days went by. Maybe it was just personal preference, but it was an over abundance of plastic and metal gold trims on chairs which didn't cut it for me.
Still - the receptionist Anton, was warm and welcoming (though the others were quite indifferent and almost came across as rude) and even upgraded our room to a Superior Room, from the standard Classic. Though truth be told, while we did look at both rooms, the only difference was the size of the room, where the Superior room was 19 meters squared - not huge, but doable.
The Room itself wasn't exactly fancy or anything, and fortunately while none of the gold trims made it up to the room, it still gave the impression that the room was fairly old and in need of a refresh sooner, rather than later.
One of the biggest issues was that since it was November - it was supposed to be considered cold, so they had turned off the central air-conditioning - however this meant the rooms got extremely stuffy at night, and we had to leave the windows open - which led the the huge noise issue. Essentially, the hotel is located at the corner of a 4 street intersections, and the tram lines go right past the hotel. Imagine the screeching of metal on metal at 1am, or the dump truck picking up the garbage on the other side of the street - well essentially if you're a light sleeper - this isn't the hotel for you when the air-conditioning isn't working. Even so, we managed to get through that ordeal.
The other issue we had seen was with the housekeeping - essentially the first day we had done some shopping and practically filled the bin, so when we left the next morning we had expected the bin to be emptied - but the rubbish was still left in the bin, and some had spilt out and had been left on the floor - so this was curious. Though they promptly emptied the bin when we called to ask if they could tidy up a little bit.
Still - we knew that most of the Rome trip would be spent out, rather than in, so we didn't take of this to heart - because Rome is absolutely glorious, inviting, and filling in every way. The Trip consisted of Touristy things to do, along with food. Lot's and lot's of food. While this is a hotel review, I did want to share some of the photo's I took along the way over the course of a few days:
And of course - how could we forget the food! Pizza, Pasta, Gelato, and more!
I got my fill of Pizza for the year, that's for sure.
Anyways, clearly I got sidetracked. Best Western Plus Hotel Milton at the end of the day is a Best Western Hotel, and you can't expect 5 star service, however the hotel didn't disappoint with the price to value given. While again I have no pictures, Breakfast was included and the spread was quite large (surprisingly so for European hotels) - the star of the show being the freshly squeezed orange juice which you made yourself - nothing like satisfaction of making your own Juice for breakfast, with not needing to clean up after.
Room comfort was average, beds were fine, but once again the pillows were lacking in comfort. It's always shocking how many hotels around the world absolutely skimp on pillows! Worth staying again? Probably not as there are a lot of hotels in Rome - but if you do end up needing to stay here, it's not the worst in the world, especially with a 4 star rated hotel, though Europe surely has odd definitions of star ratings at times. There is another Best Western which is newer and equally rated, though slightly pricier if you are keen on staying within the area, otherwise go forth and find the perfect Roman Hotel.
Still, we were excited to move out of this and move to the Hotel Palazzo Manfredi, one of the top rated hotels in Rome after this.
