Ciao Bella - Rooms, apartments, boat tours in Cinque Terre — Hotel in Riomaggiore

After reading so many excellent reviews, my stay at Ciao Bella was one I long anticipated in my solo trip to Italy. On my train trip to Riomaggiore, the host texted me and said that he wanted me to bring the cash for my stay to his restaurant instead and sent directions. When the time came close for my train to arrive he texted to confirm I was on it, that I had gotten off, that I w my way, then asking wh was on the route (this was all before I was off the train platform) as a single woman from America carrying 400 Euro in cash this was making me somewhat nervous, I explained I was on my way and concerned about the distance with my luggage. I was peppered with texts interrupting my progress as I nervously made my way. Upon arriving at the restaurant, I was instructed to give the money to an employee as the host was not even there, get my keys, and follow the new directions to my room. I was tired and stressed; it was dark, and I was begging not to feel well. I spoke to the host by video, but there was a lot of noise from the restaurant, and I had difficulty hearing. I had a question about the instructions, and the employee who took the money offered to help; they showed me where to go, and I headed that way. After half an hour of pulling my luggage up steep stairs, I came to a dead end. I returned to the bottom, retraced my steps past the busy restaurant down to the tunnel, and called the host. Who told me to return to the restaurant and leave my luggage outside (I should mention here that I am also 57, so I am exhausted and worn out by this point). The Host is yelling at me to the fact that people are stopping to turn and look both on the street and at his restaurant as I follow his instructions, he directs me by video how to get to the room and when I can’t use my flashlight and video at the same time when he wants me to, because my phone only does one or the other he tells me it’s not my phone it’s me and that I can’t follow simple instructions and so on. It was the most degrading someone had ever spoken to me in my adult life, and I work with teenagers for a living, and raised two myself! I finally ended the video chat. Opened my flashlight and was in the room within 2 minutes. I texted the host to tell him as much as possible. I hurried back to get my things, trying to hold myself together, and returned to my room, where I sobbed from the entire ordeal. I received an apology from the host with an offer of a gift at his restaurant if I went there for dinner. I declined. I felt like I was wasted emotionally and physically, and wanted nothing more than to go to bed. Unfortunately, I was too sick to do anything else during my 2 days there.

While in a beautiful location, the room needs some repair with the walls, a giant spider web directly over the bed, and missing ceiling panels in the bathroom. My most significant dissatisfaction with the room was the inability to take a hot shower for 5 minutes before the water began to turn cold quickly.

Riomaggiore…one of the highlights of my trip, became my worst part. It is so badly tainted by my memory that I will...

When we arrived at our lovely 3 bedroom apartment, everything looked perfect. My daughter called me into her room before turning in for our first night stay to ask me what I thought the tiny rust colored dots on her clean hotel sheets could be. I couldn't imagine, so we disregarded them thinking they were just very small stains that couldn't be washed out by the staff. We should have heeded the visual warning! We reserved and stayed in the apt for 2 nights. The morning we were packing to leave, my daughter let out a scream and I went running in. There were bed bugs in a few sizes, spotted in corners of her bed. Inspecting closer, we even spotted them crawling on the wall. Never having experienced anything like this, we googled what these bugs could be and were assured she slept with bedbugs! We immediately contacted management. Housekeeping was sent in to inspect and confirm bedding was infested with bedbugs. Management assured us we could have our clothes laundered and professionally dry cleaned immediately and reimbursed for the cost. We found a local dry cleaning establishment, wasted our entire morning walking to and from the dry cleaning spot, had clothes cleaned while hoping these bugs didn't get to our personal belongings and into our suitcases. The establishment refunded our rental fee, but has ignored our requests to refund out $200+ laundry bill, even though Lucio signed an agreement to reimburse the cost. The management should also have reported the infestation to their authorities, but ignored the infestation and most likely continued to rent out the apartment. Of that, I'm unsure since we left as quickly as possible for Florence. I'm posting this so renters will beware of reserving at this establishment. I know we...

I say this with a heavy heart: Cinque Terre were a major disappointment and bad value for money. We visit Italy every year twice for the past 6 years and this was our first and last visit of the Italian Riviera. In the same vain the rooms were average (for almost 100 euros per night you have to share a bathroom and be prepared to climb 165 steps to get in your room- great if you are counting!). Apparently the Green Room (which was allocated to us) was one of the biggest and the only with a balcony -view to the back of the hill which was nice- but had no air-condition and you can only imagine how roasting it was in August! The shared facilities were relatively clean and well kept but I have to say that what put me off was that towels are changed every three days and you have to pay extra if you want them changed sooner. Again for the amount of money spent per night it is rather off putting. Breakfast was average (staff was amazing and the owner himself is a lovely person and very accommodating) but poor in terms of selection (got a ham and cheese toasty, orange juice, coffee and two slices of cake -not a buffet though). As I said the staff and owner were great but the ethos in CT is just dead. People look at you as money, they are mildly rude in most places as you are replaceable and they know it, and what is worse is that these villages have lost their beauty. You don't see any locals really and the vibe is that of a 'built for tourist...