Albergo La Luna

We got to Lucca on Friday and on Saturday was La Festa di Santa Croce. The people at the hotel were very nice and the room was a very nice one which overlooked the piazza down below. We were on the «parade» route and any building on the route had candles on it. Many candles. The location of the hotel was good and we went to a small Puccini Opera early Saturday evening which was also quite close to the hotel. The breakfasts seem to be the same in Italy; juice, coffee, espresso, latte, cereal, yogurt, toast, sweets, fresh fruit, prosciutto and cheese. I don’t know if they think we want to eat prosciutto and cheese every morning or if this is indeed what the Italians eat every morning. I would definitely go back to this hotel.

I showed up and they put me in the annex. I tried to get WI-​Fi and couldn’t. Finally, they put me in a room in the main hotel. The WI-​Fi was fine. Nice room, but small. Very clean. no complaints about that. Window overlooked a small yard. It was a quiet room and I slept well. The breakfast wasn’t much. Some croissants and they will make you a cappuccino. There was some sliced meats and cereal. Normal stuff. nothing to knock your socks off. My friends stayed at the Paolina which was great. It was an actual one-​bedroom apartment with a kitchen, kitchen table, wine glasses, stove, fridge and a big bathroom. And a complimentary bottle of wine. There was even an extra room with a single bed in it. The price was the same for both places. 180 euros for two nights. The Paolina is also closer to the train station. My friends made the better choice.

Our room was in the annex, two doors down. You get a card key which opens your room (and powers the lights, see below) — but to get into the building you stop by the main desk, say you’re going in, and they buzz you into the annex. Awkward but not problematic.
Main group of rooms looked to use the standard European «leave the key at the desk» system.
Climate control’s a bit of a problem — there’s a cardkey slot to «turn on the room,» which powers the lights and the AC. There’s a dial that claims to control the AC, but ours didn’t seem to do anything. Want to charge your phone? AC goes on low. Want to read in bed? AC goes on low. Not enough too really cool the place down (open the windows for that), but enough to use energy and make some noise.
Don’t let the breakfast crew scare you — two guys in goofy T-​shirts, but they can make cappuccino just fine.