Ristorante I Portici — Restaurant in Bologna

THE GOOD The location of the Hotel is excellent. It is on one of the main street of Bologna (Via Indipendenza) Close to the main train station and to the center of the city.

The suite (550) is very large and comfortable. It consists of 1 main open space room (bed, sofa, tv and a big table) and 1 big bathroom (1 shower, bathtub, 2 sinks, 1 wc and of course 1 bidet ... we are in Italy). the bedroom was excellent and if needed the sofa could be used as 2 additional beds. The room was air conditioned ... in hot summer in Bologna is really appreciated.

The HOTEL has 3 restaurants, but only the pizzeria was open (pizzeria I PORTICI). It was excellent.

Staff of the hotel was nice and welcoming.

We spent a lot of time in the room, because we were working remotely from it. Given the size of the room we could both work without any major issues. And given the position of the hotel we had many restaurants close by to get food, without wasting too much time.

THE BAD There were a few small "BUTS" ... nothing serious and they didn't really impact in negative way our stay.

When we arrived we had many luggages and we had some difficulty to bring them to the elevator, being only 2 of us. I felt it was a bit strange that no-one of the hotel offered us some help to bring the luggages to the room (as we ordered the suite for a week)

During this period of "smartworking" we decided to work remotely from Bologna, so in the evening we could visit the city, while working during the day from the room. For this reason I asked during the booking process if it was possible to have 2 chairs and a good internet connection. When I arrived in the hotel there was only 1 chair and the connection was quite slow. I asked the chair several time during the week end (we arrived on saturday) and I managed to get it only on Monday morning around lunch time ... not a big deal, but I asked it several time.

The connection was very low (1.5 Mbps) ... but it was just enough to do our job (some time we had to use the cellphone data). Although it was not possible to increase the speed of the connection in the suite, they gave us the password for the meeting wifi ... still slow, but at least dedicated.

Another "strange" episode, was when I asked 2 serving dishes with cutlery, because I was ordering take out for dinner and we were eating in the room. The guy at the desk asked me at what time I needed them (I told him in about 45 minutes). He replied "I'll do my best to provide them" ... but the whole situation was like I was asking something very strange. At the end we got the plate ... they were very small (like breakfast plate) and I was surprised as they have 3 restaurants connected to the hotel.

Last small point ... the shower. In the bathroom there is a wonderful shower, but it is open (only 3 walls, without door) ... It is impossible to use it without flooding the whole bathroom ... we decided to use only...

We have just had a great stay at the I Portici. ||Our room was ready a little before the official check-in time which was good but we did avail ourselves of the complementarity water/prosecco/fruit juice bar in reception first! Check-in was fine and we were given a smart large deluxe twin room facing a courtyard. It was in good condition with a beautiful 'Liberty' style painted ceiling. It was a bit minimalist and the exercise bike was a silly gimmick. It would have been much better to have had some comfortable seating. The two chairs were not very comfortable. The beds were two doubles and were the most comfortable on our short tour around Emilia Romagna.||The bathroom was well equipped and large enough but could have done with more shelf space for toilet bags. There were plenty of towels of varying sizes and we had robes and slippers. The toiletries were good to use. We also had a large dressing area with plenty of storage and the luggage rack easily took two suit cases - don't see that too often. The room was mainly quiet but corridor noise was sometimes excessive. Wi-Fi was fast and the a/c worked well if a little noisy.||House keeping was good but on our last day the room had not been made up on our return at around 4.30pm. We went to reception to sort it out and the officious girl on duty more or less implied it was our fault! Talking of reception - the female receptionists were less friendly than the male ones.||Breakfast was in an old small theatre now incorporated into the hotel. Whilst it was not overly lavish, it was of a very high quality compared to what we had been having in other hotels and a good balance between sweet and savoury offerings. The coffees came from the hotels public cafe and were terrific. The yogurts were of particular note! The breakfast staff were excellent, all very helpful and friendly and they ran a tight ship.||The hotel has three restaurants, a cafe, a pizza/pasta restaurant and in the evening a Michelin starred restaurant. There is a lovely bar with terrace over looking a park behind the hotel. We had drinks there one early evening and the staff were excellent.||The location is good - right on the main shopping street which is having a massive makeover so we were glad not to have a room overlooking that. It's about as far away from the medieval centre of Bologna as you'd want to be. Very close to the hotel was a massive market (football pitch size) most days which was fun to rummage with the locals.||The hotel arranged a taxi to take us to the airport which was MUCH better than using the dreadful Marconi Monorail from Bologna Centrale (we came in on it - terrible!). It was only 30 euros or so - the monorail is about 24 euros return so was...

I stayed at the I Portici Hotel in Bologna a few weeks ago. I had an experience that surprised me. After I left the hotel, I received a phone call from Michele in Guest Services. He told me I left my jewelry in the safe. I had left the I Portici Hotel so quickly for my plane ride back to the United States, that I forgot to check the safe. He told me not to worry and that he would have it sent to me. He explained what I needed to do and sent me a form to fill out, He made me feel comfortable that this would be taken care of and told me when to expect my package.||A few days after the jewelry was supposed to arrive, I checked the tracking since it had not been delivered. I called I Portici Hotel and spoke to Michele. I told him my jewelry had not arrived. Michele called DHL and found out what the problem was. I had filled something out on the form incorrectly. Michele helped me take care of the problem.||I received my jewelry a few days later. All the jewelry I left at the I Portici Hotel was there and in great condition. Michele was so helpful and went beyond what I would expect someone at a hotel to do, He was so nice and kind. He made sure my belongings that I left there would be delivered to me.||I had a wonderful experience at I Portici Hotel. Whenever I come to Italy, I usually leave from Bologna and stay there for at least one night. Because of the nice stay I had there, and especially, because of Michele, and the wonderful service he provided and how he helped me with the problem I had, I will always stay at I Portici Hotel. I also had a lovely room with everything I needed in it and a fabulous breakfast with a great variety of foods I could eat in spite of the food allergies I have. I recommend I Portici Hotel to everyone who goes to Bologna. ||I Portici Hotel is lucky to have a person like Michele working with there. The customer service experience I had with him was excellent. He is very kind and cares about taking care of the people who stay there. I never expected someone at a hotel to care so much about helping me with belongings I had left behind. This was a surprising and wonderful experience...