We've just come back from a month in a variety of Italian hotels who claim they have airconditioning. Some had wonderful units, some turned off the entire system every night, and some had the thermostats set at 20C-22C, not cool enough to sleep deeply. Does anyone know a site or other resource which can actually let us know if the airconditioning is adequate. We have to travel in July because of work schedules and are not 18 years old anymore (or 28, 38 etc.) so we really do need the coolness for sleep.

20 isn't adequate for proper sleep? man I wouldn't want to stay at your house! you could hang meat in that temp!!

You are right; I wrote the wrong temperature-the thermostats were set at 24C-26 C-note the C; that means centigrade. In farenheit those thermostats would be around 75-80, in which your meat would spoil and my night's sleep would spoil.

Carol,<BR><BR>I don't know of any such site but I definitely can appreciate your comments. We had similar thoughts when we were in Italy during the heat wave in June. This kind of information, unfortunately, rarely gets a mention in the guidebooks but is an important consideration for at least some of us. <BR><BR>When we reserved, we asked each hotel if the a/c was controlled in the room and only booked those hotels that said it was. That might be one question to ask in the future as we at least didn't have a situation where the hotel manager or owner was able to turn the air down on us. But we still found that some of the units were just pitiful, and in one case, the hotel's a/c system just wasn't working. <BR><BR>I'm hoping someone will respond to you with a website or guidebook where this info is covered. Otherwise, I guess feedback on sites like this is the next best alternative.<BR><BR>Here's my contribution from our last trip:<BR><BR>Bellagio: Hotel DuLac - air is controlled in the room and was okay (not great) until the compressor stopped working the last day. <BR><BR>Siracusa: Hotel Gutkowski - lousy a/c -at the highest setting barely cooled the room...the frigobar likewise was barely cool. However, this hotel is right on the sea and we were able to keep the room comfortable by opening balcony doors until late afternoon when it became very humid.<BR><BR>Palermo: Hotel Joli - very good a/c, controlled in the room<BR><BR>Rome: Hotel Primavera - some rooms are supposed to be air conditioned but the whole system on one floor wasn't working when we were there. The a/c on the other floor is controlled in the room but was poor. <BR><BR>Tirennia ferry (between Palermo and Naples): good a/c, controlled in the room.

we have had the opposite problem! I was cold and we could not turn the AC off!

I caught the C bit - still 68 degrees is a tad nippy! (I was tongue in cheek about the hanging meat - but I would sure use a comforter if someone kept the a/c on 68 in my house!)<BR><BR>but I completely agree - 24-26C - holy cow.

Excellent topic. The hotel I stayed in many years ago in Rome only turned AC on during the day. And at night, the streets are much too loud to be able to open the windows.

Here is my experience from just two weeks ago.....<BR>Rome - Hotel Farnase by the Lepano metro stop....very good. You had a control in your room and we used it the whole time we were there. <BR><BR>Stresa - Hotel Astoria...very good. The air conditioning was triggered in your room when you had the doors to your balcony closed. They were open when we arrived but quickly figured it out. You could adjust the blower as well as the temp.