Hotel Serena

Evenings in the dark

Rather mixed experiences. Serena is very well situated, near the Termini station (where the two metro lines cross each other and many buses stop) and near to the Santa Maria Maggiore church. Many pizzerias etc. nearby. Classic stylish interior. Stairs with broad 'marble' stair- treads. Beautiful art deco like 'half open' escalator with much wrought iron and glass. Room on 5th stock rather small (the two beds filled most op it), buth stylish and clean, with tv (RAI 1,2, 3, (Italian) MTV, BBC World News), good bathroom with shower, very good airco. Sufficient breakfast, although the sweetness (sugar) of al the bread is not really our preference. Friendly staff.
Alas out stay was overshadowed firstly by the fact that the escalator seldom worked. And (the temparature being 34 degrees Celsius) climbing to our room meant mounting 130 steps!
Far worse was the fact that on two of the three evenings (first time July the 20th,2010, from 19 o' clock, second time 21th of July already from 16 o clock) precisely on our stock electricity fell out! Effect: Key card didn't work, no light, no airco, no tv! In both cases the problem was only solved in the middle of the night, when suddenly the lights got on and the airco restarted.
We were told that it was the fault of the electricity company and that neighbours had the same problem. Curiously enough lower floors of our hotel hadn't any problem.
Although the hotel staff might be 'innocent', we were not amuse by their careless. shrugging attitude. In both cases we were not warned in advance when we came in and went to our room: they just smiled widely. Only after we asked for it the second evening it happend we got a pocket torch - but within 15 minutes the batteries were empty. So again 130 steps down and 130 steps up to get another...
Only when we left we got something of an apology (from the wife of the owner).