Royal San Marco Hotel

We started our "tour" of Italy in Venice, this was self organised so we had little help from a "guide". We booked this hotel as it looked gorgeous on their website and the location was central, for two sisters travelling on our own we didn't want to be walking down dark alleys to get home at night!!!

When we arrived in St Marks Square (locally known as San Marco Square - we figured that out after 20mins!!) we looked for this hotel that on the map was meant to be seen from the square.

We must have asked about 10 people for directions as we were sent on this wild trek through these tiny alley way like streets, over bridges with suitcases etc. Finally a shopkeeper took pity on us as we collapsed outside his shop about to cry, he called the hotel to find out where it was and when he was given directions closed his shop to walk us there!!!

You can imagine our surprise when we got there to find out it was just by St Marks Square(at the beginning of an alley way like street). For those of you that never been Venice all the streets are like alleyways or obviously canals!!

The hotel was a shop front next to cafes' and gift shops, it looked small, but then all the buildings did, they gave us our key and showed us the lift... so much for helping us with our cases.

We opened the room to our hotel and just stared at the room from the door, either in shock or wondering how on earth we were both going to fit in, it was a box room, probably the old cleaners store cupboard before they gave them a decent sized room!!! We had to walk in single file as the path was the width of our suitcases!!

The walls were bare magnolia, with an old picture and mirror, nothing like the flock wallpaper on the website. It was a twin room but one of the single beds was a camp bed which for some reason I ended up with and was directly behind the door against the wall so no bedside cabinet!!

The bathroom was OK in size with a shower/bath and was about the same size as the room. Venice was freezing so we put on the air conditioning to heat which was good except it made so much noise we couldnt sleep with it on.

The TV/Mini bar was nice and new but the rest of the hotel was old and drabby.

For the area (San Marco) it was the best in terms of location and as two people who hardly stay in our hotel it was OK to sleep in. But it was a hostel room and nothing posh as they made out.

TIPS FOR VENICE:

- Venice is expensive.... very expensive.

- Be aware of restaurant signs that say 5euros for a pizza, as the drinks are probably about 7euros (for a can of coke). If they don't show you the prices of the drinks on the menus outside, be wary!!!

- Although St Marks Square is the "big attraction" its just a building and not much else, stay in Rialto or close to the railway station. We found ourselves catching water boats to get back to those areas and at 6 euros a time it was pricey.

- Be careful of the roads - they are like alley ways with candle light effect lighting in the evening which can be scarey. They also look the same we found ourselves going around in a maze trying to get back, we were lucky as our hotel was 2secs from St Marks Sq so we didn't bother trying to retrace our steps we just headed back to the square.