Hotel Mignon

I stayed here during a workshop at the ICTP because the ICTP guesthouses were full. One thing I noticed about the hotels (and other indoor spaces) in Trieste is that they are generally pretty cold, so keep that in mind when it’s winter. Trieste isn’t a warm Mediterranean city and in fact got to below freezing when I was there in early December. At one point my room in the Hotel Mignon was so cold that I had a hard time sleeping at night, even though the heat was cranked to its highest setting (which was a theoretical 30C it never reached).
Another matter of comfort was the sound in this hotel, you can easily hear other people using the restroom, walking around, or talking. Indeed, other people in the hotel would sometimes stay up late talking in the stairwell which would echo throughout the entire building and prevent sleep.
If you are accustomed to hotels in the US, or even chain hotels elsewhere in the world, there are a few things about the Hotel Mignon that might put you off. The front desk is only open at select hours of the day, exactly which hours those are, I’m not sure. Another matter makes you yearn for US fire codes, because you have to lock and unlock the door from the inside, which using an extremely old fashioned key takes quite some time and skill to master.
But really, the worst thing about the hotel is something so horrible, security wise, that I’m not sure I should even mention it here for fear somebody would abuse the system. Every room key is identical. If that makes you feel terribly unsafe, I recommend you find another hotel. Unfortunately I didn’t have any choice in the matter, and I have to say my body and possessions were quite safe the entire time, but I was definitely uneasy about the situation.