Casa Don Guanella

Accommodation was old but good. Hotel was almost empty. Hotel is usually for old people on retirement. Breakfast was tasty. It is pitty that there is no restaurant near around or some activity. Only in Ispra - around 20 minutes by foot.

My room was very simple and minimalistic (BTW: no TV whatsoever) but spotlessly clean and very spacious. It appears that some walls between the rooms are quite thin, so I heard a bit more than I needed from my neighbouring room. The breakfast was fairly simple, but surprisingly good and delicious: good coffee, egg & bacon, fantastic warm croissants… what else a man needs? A dinner buffet is served every afternoon for 15 Euros. I must say that the dinner was much better than I expected, a bit rustic, but enjoyable and tasty. There are no so many employees working there, but the service level was quite high, especially when it comes to ladies in the reception, they speak English and are very helpful. The area around is nice and quiet, you can hear birds and barking dogs sometimes, but this is rather charming than disturbing. The beautiful town of Ispra is only 30 minutes walk from the hotel. There are also a couple of small restaurants in walking distance. The only drawback (and this is not the hotel's fault) that it is difficult to get a taxi around there. All and all I am quite happy with this place, it was a great experience to stay there.

I stayed here with a group of friends. Our other hotels on a two-week tour had been 4-star and 5-star but Casa Don Guanella is a class of its own. A spiritual retreat center for the Catholic church, the center also hosts conferences and small groups like ours. The staff was very, very pleasant and helpful, though few spoke English. The rooms are large but Spartan with no TV. The bathrooms are huge, competely tiled with a shower that is literally a hole in the floor surrounded by a cloth curtain on a rod. Breakfast was typical cold continental, dinner was served family style with wholesome if not exciting food (though perhaps the best Caprese salad I ever had). Whether one put in a wake up call or not, the roosters under the windows did the trick about 4:00 a.m. Beautiful mature wooded gardens in back of hotel with walking paths that were also Stations of the Cross. No village, actually nothing at all in walking distance from the residence. My friends were in near mutiny when they arrived at the residence . . . but had mellowed out completely by the end of the stay (chuckling at the roosters rather than cursing them). Perhaps the tranquil contemplativety of the place rubbed off on us--or maybe it was the E6 bottles of wine available at the bar. More dormitory than hotel but a pleasant place, nonetheless.