We had planned to visit cinque terre and used La Spezia as a cheaper home base and to also explore Porto Venere. Del Sole seemed to be the only available option since we booked last minute. The website claims that it is a five minute walk from the station, that is so untrue! You have to wait for the bus outside the station, we waited for about half hour.Once inside the bus it is five minutes to the 1st bus stop. Then you spend time asking for directions because the owners have not thought that this little bit matters when you are carrying luggage. The locals at La Spezia are wonderful and showed us the way (helps if you understand a bit of italian, else interpret from hand gestures). Il Sole is located just off the main fruit and vegetable market and also close to a Zara shop. The street around is very quaint and is a nice locality. It is walking distance to the main bus stand from where you can do day trip to Porto Venere. Once inside the entrance you have to carry your luggage up a flight of stairs, they wont allow you to use the elevator! Not a very inviting place when you arrive. The rooms are large, roomy and clean. They do not provide breakfast in the price, but on request, the owners allowed us to use the kitchen. The bathrooms are spacious, clean but had problems with plumbing.

Location is very good, owner seems to mean well but the whole set-up with him and his children stuck in a central room makes it feel like you are intruding on a slightly sad and definitely tired and shabby home. The rooms are large but a flimsy door and curtain, and one feels neither secure nor private. Shared bathrooms which are not properly clean. This could be so much nicer with a little work from the owners - it seems they have given up. The rooms look NOTHIING like the photos. We have stayed at plenty of cheap hotels and our expectations are not too high but you can do so much better than Il Hole.

This hotel was perfectly fine for what we were looking for - A place to crash! We went to La Spezia so we could spend a day in Cinque Terre (we went to Montorosso which was beautiful) and for our purposes the hotel was perfect. It was close to the train station - A straight shot down the main shopping street for about 10 to 15 minutes, very easy to find - and also the harbor. So whether you want to take the train or the ferry to Cinque Terre villages - You are very close! Also, because it was on the main pedestrian street, there were endless restaurants, cafes & bars to choose from. It was all very very convenient! The hotel itself has definitely seen better days but the staff was nice and it was very inexpensive for the location! Overall - You get what you pay for! And this was just what we needed - nothing more, nothing less.

As soon as we saw the room, we turned around and walked out.
I cannot emphasize enough how disgusted I was with the quality at Albergo del Sole Hotel La Spezia. Although the so called hotel is only 1 star, the standard was beyond anything that I have every experienced. My friend and I (we are 2 girls in our 20's) have been travelling on a budget, and have had excellent experiences so far with hostels and hotels in Barcelona (Hostal Campi ), Florence (Hotel Plazzuolo) and Nice (Chez Patrick) so we were't expecting what we got here... Firstly the lift in the building cannot be used by patrons of the hotel, so bags must be carried up 2 flights of stairs. Then when we got there, we were astounded to find that the door to our room had a pannel smashed out, that had been fixed with sticky tape and card board. When we got into the room, although it was reletively clean, there were exposed wires coming from the wall where a power point had once been and we could hear very distubing noises from a man in a neighbouring room.
The hotel manager could not understand why we did not want to stay and insisted that we pay one night penalty.
All I can say, is don't stay here.