Lodging Review: Hotel Il Convento in Naples, Italy
I booked my Naples long weekend quite far in advance (for me, that means a month or two), but I procrastinated with booking the hotels and unfortunately, didn't anticipate that hotels would be nearly completely booked for the holiday weekend of the Feast of Immaculate Conception.
That meant very, very few options remaining. I lucked out big time with finding Hotel Il Hotel, a highly-rated hotel according to Booking.com and TripAdvisor, but unluckily it was only available for my first night in Naples, and not my last night (after my Amalfi Coast trip).
The hotel is located in the Spanish Quarter, which is super atmospheric with its narrow streets full of local shops and people doing their errands.
There are signs directing you to the hotel, from the main shopping drag of Via Toledo which is served by a couple different Metro stops. This definitely came in handy when trying to find the hotel without consulting Google Maps every five steps!
I soon appreciated why this hotel is so highly rated. Not only does it have a great location, but the service was so warm and friendly. I arrived at around 10am, and naturally my room wasn't ready. But the receptionist offered to store my bag, and offered me breakfast! Usually, hotels with breakfast included in the rate are pretty strict about letting you have breakfast only on the morning after. But here, I ended up having breakfast twice for just a one night stay - and given my early morning flight from Bergamo I really welcomed this offer!
The breakfast room is one floor up from the little reception area, and had an incredibly cozy and homey feeling. I met another guest over breakfast who was checking that morning. He was frantically looking for another hotel for that evening, because they had originally booked an Airbnb which turned out to be a nightmare, and due to the holiday weekend they couldn't find another hotel with consecutive nights. So they were lucky to have found Il Convento for their first night, but today the hotel was fully booked.
On one side, there are different juices available.
And more savory options, like cheeses and hams, and even some hot food (but I didn't partake in these).
On the opposite side were the sweet offerings, like fresh fruit and a whole variety of cakes and pastries. The Neapolitans really like their sweets at breakfast!
This was actually my breakfast from the following day, when I was alone in the dining room and felt more free to take pictures. Like good hotels in Italy, the coffee is also made to order.
Later in the day, after visiting the National Archaeological Museum, I got to check into my room. It was actually a lot more modern and comfortable than I was expecting from the photos on the website. I booked a single room, which usually means a single (twin) bed, but this room had a double bed.
The bathroom had decent counter space, and funny toilet with the tank all the way at the ceiling. I think that Italy has the most variety of toilets I've ever encountered - each toilet seems to have a different way to flush, a different location for the tank...
Neapolitans really get into Christmas, with famous Christmas markets peddling figurines for Nativity scenes, and this hotel was no different. There was an Advent calendar in the room...
...and a cute little Christmas tree on my balcony! I really enjoyed the views from this balcony, just observing locals going about their daily business, and motorcycles, pedestrians, and delivery trucks vying for the same space. Yes, there was some noise facing the street, but there were actually a couple pairs of earplugs on offer in the room.
On checkout, they gave each guest a parting gift - a Christmas cookie! Hotel Il Convento really nailed the whole experience from check-in all the way to check-out. I would definitely come back on another trip!
