Fiuggi, Centrale Hotel

FIUGGI is an excellent base for touring the great sights of Italy, particularly Rome, and is a beautiful small town with GREAT hotels, BUT the IMPERIALE is definitely NOT one of them! Went on this trip with Leger but definitely will not be using them again (that is totally another story). Shame they used to be great.

I have visited FIUGGI many times and stayed in great hotels (the FIORO and the CENTRALE being TWO of the BEST) but the IMPERIALE is awful.

One of the reception staff has very limited English and she is only there over-night, and NONE of them know how to smile, unfortunately - in fact they come over as downright hostile. This is very unusual, as I have always found that most Italians are very welcoming even if they cannot speak English. I can only presume that they all must have some sort of gripe with their employers and take it out on the clientele. I had to complain ( in a mixture of my limited Italian and sign language!!) at the way the key was literally thrown across the reception desk at me and the next day I did receive a, "Bongiorno, signora", given with a grimace , but that is a far as it went - no actual apology.

To be fair, I do not expect that all staff have a good command of English, after all, how many hotels in the UK have multi-lingual staff, BUT I do expect that some attempt be made to accommodate visitors on a friendly, give-a-try to the language basis? I also think that there should at least be some-one with even a rudimentary knowledge of their visitors' languages on site during the day-time. Surely it would be in their own interests to show some sort of friendliness, after all, it might boost their trade, as this hotel was nowhere near full - I wonder why?

The breakfast fare is awful, mainly stale rolls and bread ( I know for a fact that the same croissants were served up for three days on the trot, as I deliberately poked a fork into one of them and it was still on the tray 2 days later!) The toaster only worked at usually the third time of trying and the drinks machine served up cold tea and coffee, but, best of all, there is a dreadful woman in charge of the dining room with glasses slung around her neck, who is the epitome of the old, strict headmistresses of yesteryear - grim, unsmiling, putting on her glasses and silently, rudely pointing to tell you where to sit. Being able to sit where you wished would have been nice, wouldn't it? A lovely welcome each morning, I don't think! We did not bother to try any other meals as they were charging 20 Euros for what looked like a very limited menu and having sampled the breakfasts decided to give them a miss. In any case there are many great eating places in FIUGGI at far cheaper prices.

It was extremely noticeable that the Italians staying there were treated with far more respect and friendliness - what a way to ensure they have repeat visits from other nationalities. I do reiterate that this is very odd as the people of FIUGGI are very friendly and do their best to communicate and go out of their way to help.

Actually, the whole ambience of this hotel was 'miserable' - a great pity as it is in a lovely location.

To be fair to them the handling of luggage was good, the rooms and bathrooms were very clean but very cramped and we had a nasty view at the back! However, the hot water supply was excellent, plenty of towels and the showers good, if rather cramped in very narrow baths. The air conditioning system was also excellent.

All in all I do NOT recommend this hotel - there are plenty more far superior ones in FIUGGI as already mentioned.