With help of posters here, I have planned a week-long trip to Montepulciano, Florence and Bologna. Before I reserve my hotel in Bologna, I would like to hear opinions of places you all have enjoyed. We want to be in the center of the city and would like to spend under 220 Euro per night. Two places that look promising are Orologico ($209 USD double) and Al Capello Rosso. Anyone have experience with these two? Also would love places to eat within walk the center....homey with great food, more trattoria than ristorante..slow food-ish a plus. Does not have to be budget, just good local food.

Good morning, stayed at theAl Capello
Rosso.via de Fusari, 9, service was good, rooms reminded me of ones that might been built in a trailer factory.,
looked factory designed and built...
Enjoyed the stay across the street at
the HOTEL ROMA....Two ristorantes near by were the LA MELA. via de Fusari, 5 a
pizzeria with good fish dishes.. and the Trattoria Da Adofo, Corte Galluzzi, 7
excellant ma and pa ristorante, small and resvn suggested located about a half block up of the Massimo d'Azeglio,
in courtyard to the left. Beleive it has changed names but do not know too what. Richard of LaGrange Park,m Il..

We stayed in San Donato which is a Best Western (don't be put off, it's a marketing consortium not a group of new build identikit hotels). It's a beautiful historic building in an excellent central location. We were upgraded so our room was large with a separate seating and dining area. Very pretty. What I noticed particularly waw how warm and helpful the staff were. A friend of mine had stayed a year or two previous and mentioned the staff being excellent which is partly why we booked it.

I'd recommend you search for a recently posted trip report on Bologna as the poster detailed restaurants and sights very nicely.

For food don't miss the Mercato delle Erbe not far from Piazza Maggiore for cheeses and salumi esp. The best I have had in Italy. They close at 1:00 Saturdays. Probably closed Sundays. Not sure about weekday orario. Enjoy.

Thanks, all. Hotel Roma looks great but I am not able to send my request through their system on the web site. Can anyone provide an e-mail address for them? Any tips on which room to request?

This post seems to have disappeared...hope to bring it back. Can anyone tell me the e-mail address of Hotel Roma in Bologna, or how to find it? I have tried to reserve using the system from the hotel's web site but it does not work foro me. No e-mail is listed on the web site. The hotel sounds like a good bet in Bologna.

I don't know if you saw my recent (still-in-progress) trip report. But the Bologna part is finished. It's at:
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34692313

You mentioned Slow Food -- do you have their Osterie book? Or you can get some recommendations from their web site if you register. I think you have to go through the Italian site:
http://slowfood.it/
Click on Osterie at the top, and you can search by region.

It never steered us wrong on food, although in some places the service left a bit to be desired.

Thanks, Nonna. I will read your report again right now. I do not have the Osterie book, as I do not believe it is sold in the US; I always use the
Slow Food web site (if you sign up you can follow the sort-of-confusing directions to acess their members in various regions of Italy) but will buy the book this time in Italy. That is a great tip for those who do not know about the book. Looking forward to a good read with your thread now!

The Osterie book is very heavy -- we actually did not take the book with us, but copied some of the pertinent pages. You can buy it online from the Slow Food web site (that's what we did), although of course, the shipping is rather expensive. It did arrive pretty quickly though; I think it was about a week after I placed the order.

Nonna Felice
Yours is the report I was referring to but my memory retains details sucu as names about as well as a sieve retains water and I couldn't for the life of me remember your name!