Altana Bologna

The perfect place to stay in Bologna if you are a couple (or alone) and want to enjoy the most central location and an insane rooftop with a 360° view (+ a smaller terrace on the apartment floor, with a grill and a very nice 180° view) at a very reasonable price ! Would definitely come again ! The apartment is on the 6th floor of a nice building. There's an elevator to reach the 4th floor, then you'll have one floor to go in the large stairs of the building, and one floor in the (very very) small spiral staircase of the apartment (there's nothing on 5th floor in the apartment except the front door and the access to this staircase). Getting up a large suitcase is a bit challenging but it's feasible and your host will help you. And you'll only be doing that once. However, each time you want to leave the apartment, of course you have to go through this small staircase. Not an issue at all though, except if you are in a very bad shape. The rooftop is on the 7th floor, accessible by the same spiral staircase (so of course the rooftop is just for you). Nothing tricky, no problem if you are afraid of heights (and I am a lot), but don't expect the rooftop to be on the same floor than the apartment.  A ventilation shaft from a restaurant must be not far away, there's sometimes a bad kitchen smell but it won't prevent you from staying on the rooftop quite a lot. As already said, the view is incredible ! Really 360° !  The rooftop is big, maybe 15m2, with two tables, chairs, benches and deckchairs.Deckchairs are great to lie on but everything to sit on is really uncomfortable. I think two comfy armchairs would be a great addition. The apartment is not big but well designed and you'll find almost everything you need. There is a "main room", where the kitchen is taking half of the space. The kitchen is ok, but dishes and cooking ustensiles are limited (for example : we missed a kitchen knife that really cuts... steak knives, which are there, are not convenient for a lot of things; only 3 wine glasses, ...). There is no dishwasher. Nice touch : there is a Nespresso machine.  There is a counter with 4 high chairs. Again not very comfortable, so we missed a small sofa or two small armchairs when we wanted to relax (only way is to sit in the bed). In the main room you can access the terrace through a glazed door. The terrace is smaller than the rooftop, with a less panoramic view, but very enjoyable too. And there's a gas barbecue !Only not so good thing : the shutter on the glazed door is hard to use. You have to make some kind of rotation to block it at the bottom but it doesn't hold well and you might have the shutter which gets open in the middle of the night in a loud noise. The bathroom is really small but nice and clean, and even includes a washing machine.Water pressure in the shower is very good. The bedroom is big enough, with lots of closets to put your stuff (and you can also keep your suitcases open and full under the bed). The bed is a bit hard, but that's personal taste. It seemed smaller on the pictures, but it's 160 cm large, just fine. However it's shorter than usual, I'm not sure but 180 I think. Anyway, if you are tall like me, your feets will go beyond the bottom of the bed ;-). There are large windows around the bed, that's nice and no worries for the night, there are electric shutters which are working well (however, you might have too much light in the bedroom if you didn't manage closing the shutter in the main room, see above) Lots of electric plugs everywhere, that's very convenient. TV in front of the bed. AC is working very well, there's one in the kitchen / main room and another one in the bedroom (separate settings) Wifi is working well too (15/20Mb), but beware, it's actually a 4G connection, so data is limited at 100Gb / month. Don't watch too many shows on Netflix and if you're staying at the end of the month, just hope the previous guests didn't either ;-) You cannot beat the location, you can do everything by foot, the towers of Bologna are literally around the corner, Piazza Maggiore is 2 min away, you have plenty of very good restaurants and shops just there (Tamburini, in the same building than the apartment, which is a great old fashioned italian deli / bar / restaurant, is a good start !). Even if it's a busy street right in the middle of the city center, noise is ok (of course don't expect no noise at all), we had good sleeps (except for one night when a bar nearby threw a huge party). The host is very kind and answers very fast through the booking.com messaging. In short : if you're ok with the configuration of the apartment, do not hesitate, book, you won't regret it ! Some improvements could be done to make it even better, but it's already nice, and the rooftop is enough anyway to make it a exceptional place

What an experience staying at this apartment. The views are absolutely incredible and I cannot imagine a better location. You are literally steps from EVERYTHING. The apartment is immaculately clean and well taken care of. The terraces are incredible and great to start and end your day with. At first I was hesitant bc of the spiral stairs but they're not bad at all and the staff will carry your bags for you so you don't even have to worry about that part. They make check in and out super easy. If I was to come back to Bologna I would most definitely stay here!

The day before yesterday I booked 4 nights in june this year. The booking was unconditionally confirmed. This nigth I was informed, that the booking had been cancelled by Altana Bologna, without as much as an excuse, let alone an explanation. Needless to say this is extremely unsatisfactory - possibly the Altana Bologna has a policy of overbooking and/or pricefixing? I cannot recommend any contact.