Hotel Rondinella — Hotel in Cannero Riviera

We spent an enjoyable couple of days at this hotel, it is set just outside the town and slightly uphill, this meant that we had the most beautiful panaramic view of Lake Maggiore.||It is a lovely hotel, I believe it was built in the 1930's.||We had booked a double room with Lake views, we were actually given an apartment which was just a few steps away from the main building. We loved it, it comprised of a decent size bedroom, wardrobe,chest of drawers, bathroom and a lounge/dining/kitchen area.There was every thing you needed to prepare a meal if you wished,it also had cleaning bits and pieces supplied as well(wash up liquid/tea towels/sponges)It had unoverlooked windows with the views across to the lake and our own little patio area. It was'nt 5 star, but it was homely and spotlessly clean.||||There is a lovely garden/Terrace with the tables set out so you can sit back, have a drink, meal and in the morning breakfast is served there.The area had an awning which could quickly be brought out if the rain came on as it did for us for about half an hour, storm over, then rolled in again.||The staff were lovely,they did'nt speak much English, we did'nt speak much Italian but was not a problem, we managed to get round it.||We ate at the hotel both nights of our stay,food was fine and very reasonable as were the drinks.||The breakfast was very good, choice of cereals,yoghurts,meats,chease,preserves.||Now as I have said, beautiful views as you are uphill but with that comes steps, to get down to the Lake it self you just walk down the hotels drive and across the road and there is a stepped pathway down, it was fine for us but it is fairly steep and uneven, if you have mobilty problems maybe not for you. Once down it is very easy walking along the Lake side, there are bars and places to eat and areas to laze by and take a paddle or swim in Lake.||We did'nt try to walk down by the road way as there were no pavements that we could see and it was a busy little road.||Would we go back, no...

The hotel is located about 1 km (a 15 min. walk) outside the village of Cannero Riviera on a hill along the main road, overlooking Lago Maggiore. Part of the hotel is a beautiful old villa, the other part is a modern annex, which is where our room was. The room was basic: a squeaky bed with flimsy pillows, a TV and a small balcony, but was spotless clean. The balcony overlooks the lake, but offers little privacy as it's right next to a stairway leading to other rooms. The bathroom was good (and again very clean), though the strange construction of the shower cabin means you have to limbo-dance your way into it. As there are no carpets anywhere in the hotel, the hallway and the rooms are extremely noisy and you're likely to wake up a couple of times from doors slamming or the cleaning lady doing her work. Note that the rooms do not have air-conditioning or even a simple fan, which in our case meant it was uncomfortable hot. Breakfast is served in the restaurant on the terrace, which is the hotel's best asset. It offers a great view, and the choice of food is large for Italian standards. We found the cocky head-waiter of the restaurant a bit of a turn-off though. A limited number of parking spaces are available on a very narrow and steep road and parking can be a bit of a challenge. We paid 96 EUR per night for our room, which in the high season at Lago Maggiore is fairly normal, though I still feel it is a lot of money for what is in essence very basic 2*...

The view is great, the breakfast is good (however it is missing vegetables and only has hard boiled eggs). However the "superior" room furnishing leaves something to be desired, it looks dated (90's style) and not too nice. The balcony offers a nice view, but it only has plastic furniture, and is not really separated from the other apart from a symbolic dividing rail (or a low "fence" - anyway the neighboring rooms balconies are in full view and so is yours) so there is no privacy on the balcony if there are other guests in the neighboring rooms. There should be enough parking space for most of the guests. The location is ok, it has a good view, but is some distance away from the nearby Cannero Riviera town, and there is no pavement on the road leading up to the town, so there is no safe way to walk there on foot apart from just walking on the narrow (and quite busy)...