carcassone

Will be in Bologna the last week of July for a week. The best located apartment I can find is on the 4th floor (5th in US?), no lift. This will be the top floor of that building. The apartment is 2 levels, no A/C or fan on the main level but A/C upstairs in the loft area. The apartment is 130 sq m so not sure how much the A/C in the loft can help cool down the rest of the space.

Look like avg temp will be high 80. So is it insane to rent an apartment without A/C thru out?

Chris_Cutler

I think it all depends on what is hot to you and your ability to tolerate heat. Don't forget the humidity, and according to what I found, the humidity is in the 40-80% range in a typical July.

Considering the loft area has air (and I assume you're sleeping there), you could probably do it.

If you are still a little concerned, I would suggest that you check out Santo Stefano B&B.... They also have apartments (with AC).

Good luck.

sandralist

You could get temperatures much higher than that, so I think it could be unbearable unless the unit is spanking new and has sufficient force. If the air con is feeble, you'll want to open windows, so if the apartment is a noisy location, that could also ruin a night's sleep. But without seeing a link to the apartment, and seeing how much cross ventilation it has, how the loft space is related to the rest of the apartment, how new the a/c unit looks, hard to tell.

Also, I am not sure what you consider "well-located". There are many locations in Bologna that work well for seeing the city and using the train station that are off the tourist radar of where to stay and actually quite interesting.

tarquin

Bologna in hot weather is well provided for with shady porticos to walk under, but a week in July with inadequate a/c sounds very uncomfortable. Heat rises, so your loft bedroom could be unbearable, and that's after climbing lots and lots of stairs. This sounds like a good apartment for cool weather.

dreamon

Agree with Chris that it depends on what you're used to. We live in a place with very hot summers so air conditioning is a nice to have rather than a need to have. But we would be fussy about having good heating in winter because we're not used to cold winters.

sandralist

This is a useful website for looking up actual temperatures for the last week in July for previous years. As you can see, the archive shows that last year, peak temps in Bologna in the last week in July hit 100 F on some days, and the same was true the year before.

http://www.ilmeteo.it/portale/archiv...na/2013/Luglio

It really does make a difference how new and efficient the air con is, or whether the loft is enclosed or a completely open mezzanine. Still, in 100 F heat, the top floor of any building in Bologna is likely to heat up considerably. Again, would be interesting to know about other apartments with air con that you liked except for their locations. Perhaps their locations are better than you think (but you also need to make sure anybody's air con actually works more than a piffle in the event of a true heat wave).

nytraveler

Much of the "A/C" you will fnd in europe is minimal. As a rule they do not have hte concept of keeping the indoors at 72 degrees in summer.

(I admit we use AC from May through late Sept and have extra strong units - so it's cool even on days when it's 100 degrees outside. But I have NO tolerance for heat - much prefer cold - the main reason we go to Italy in May or Oct - that is plenty hot enough for us.)

sandralist

It really only matters what the AC is in this apartment, not the philosophy of Europe. Plenty of NYC hotel rooms have truly abysmal air con and heating. What's the concept there? I live in an Italian apartment with 3 air con units, and when I want to cool the apartment, I turn on one in a bedroom I am not in, and it cools down the entire apartment to very pleasant temps. It is a high quality new model air conditioner, so that makes a difference, but plenty exist in Europe these days.

HappyTrvlr

We spent a week in Bologna in June, two years ago. It was beastly hot and humid, over 100 degrees F, and we had to return to our A/C hotel room during the day to cool off. I wouldn't consider that apt. And femeber that heat rises so the loft will be warmer than the area below.

nytraveler

Sorry - but my experience is that in europe AC in many of the older hotels is minimal - either not turned high enough or not enough units.

If the apartment has strong units it may cool the apt - but if the AC is only in the loft it may not cool the whole thing. I would ask very specifically how cold it will be indoors.

As for poor AC in the US - my experience is that in most places it tends to be too cold versus not col enough. I agree that there may be places with AC no cold enough - but not many and I'm sure that would turn up in reviews.