Hotel Belvedere, Lake Como

We stayed at Hotel Belvedere for 5 nights in their double twin bed room. I'll start with the positives: the hotel is nestled on the east side of Bellagio, away from the direct hustle and bustle of the city center, but just steps away, making it a prime location, quiet and convenient for popping down to shops and restaurants. The on-site dining, La Terrazza, is a pleasant surprise with stunning views of the lake. Usually, unless you're paying up and staying somewhere purely focused on service and fine dining, you expect the usual, run of the mill food, but La Terrazza was superb. From start to finish, we found it high quality for lunch and dinner. In terms of areas of improvement, we understood being on a lake town in Italy, accommodations may not necessarily be the most up to date to respect the integrity of the area, but the rooms were much more dated and minimal than expected. Their attention to detail could use some work. As we were traveling on our honeymoon, we were graciously greeted with a kind card in our room that alluded to a complimentary bottle of champagne that had been left…unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found. We also arrived end of October, the beginning of off-peak season, but a warm one at that. The hotel informed us upon arrival that they had switched over to heat for the season…unfortunately for us, it was 60 degrees F / C each day, so our room was sweltering with no relief aside from opening a window, which didn't provide much and caused my asthma to act up. We notified the front desk and we were told a fan would be brought up, but it never arrived. One last minor detail, but worth noting if you're walking around for a while, the key chains for the room keys are massive and heavy, so a pain to walk around with. Overall, Hotel Belvedere is a nice stop if staying for 2-3 nights in Bellagio and you don't want to be riddled with other tourists staying in the cramped city center. With a few enhancements to guest experience, it could be a nice stay.

Room 410 on fourth floor had excellent view of the lake with windows that opened. The room is very small and dominated by an enormous bed which is actually two singles pushed together so an extremely uncomfortable ridge along the centre. Towelling robes and slippers were a welcome addition. The shower is also very small, the kind you will find in budget hotels. The toilet is right beside the window with a small basin and a small area to place toiletries, tooth brushes etc,. The breakfast is good offering a wide range of fruit, cereals and cooked food to order, however, the coffee was the worst we had tasted in Italy, although the cappuccino was fine. Delightful staff. Bar area lacks atmosphere and character. We had to request olives etc., they were not automatically provided with our cocktail order. After reading reviews and overhearing people discuss the expensive restaurant we cancelled our booking there and pleased we did. Pool area fine. Wash rooms beside the pool/bar area had no hand wash soap and strangely their location is not immediately evident. To sum up, excellent staff, good breakfast, lots of concrete but rather ‘soul-less’