Merano is a charming small town in a beautiful setting. The Hotel Adria is a great old pile with the charm of a by-gone era. There are several hotels of this type in Merano. They cater, for the most part, to older people, many of whom are German, Austrian or Swiss.

Our room was comfortable with a balcony that had a slight view out to one side. From the advertisements and descriptions on the hotel web site I assumed the hotel was in a park. It is near a park, but the hotel itself is on a rather small plot of land which has been nicely landscaped, but is smack up against a lot of similar looking buildings-- some are hotels, others are private homes. There is a free car park, although our car was damaged by someone during our three day stay--we didn't find out who scraped the whole side of our car because they left no information.

We were required to take half board, which turned out to be full board because lunch is offered as well as breakfast and dinner. A special tea room serves cakes and sweets at tea time which is also included. The breakfast buffet was the nicest one we had anywhere in Italy. The dining room is very formal and the evening meal is several courses long, served by waiters in formal attire. The food was excellent and plentiful. As everywhere in Italy, you pay extra for your bottle of water or wine. The weird thing was that the dining room full of people was almost silent. No one seemed to be having a very good time, and most of the time people whispered. Perhaps this is just European behavior. it was a bit intimidating!!!

There was a nice pool available for guest use, and some other spa amenities but there was no explanation in English so we didn't understand how to use some of the special saunas and whirlpools. We were very impressed with one of the staff members at the front desk, Daniella. She spoke excellent Italian, German and English, and made our stay very pleasant by advising us about what to see, where to go and answering our questions. We were able to walk to all the interesting in-town tourist destinations and found the old town particularly attractive. We took a long day trip up the Valdosta Valley as the apple harvest was being gathered. it is a spectacular trip with many different castles, churches, villages and other points of interest to see along the way.

Our room and board was 240 Euros a day or about $360 at the current exchange. Considering the quality of the food, the comfort of our room, and the general expense of hotels and food in Italy, we thought it was a reasonable bargain overall.