You will not be sorry to stay at the Grand Italia, we are train travelers so the location to the the station is fantastic, although when we first sure that the hotel was immediately opposite to the station we were a little concerned that it might be an unpleasant stay with regards to noise, but our room was peaceful.

And the room was enormous, for a minute I thought we were back in Australasia, king size bed, large desk , frig, keyboard for free internet connection, large bathroom with bathrobes and slippers, all for a very small price including buffet breakfast.

The breakfast room was very pleasant to go to each morning, it is fresh looking, nicely lit, tables with white stiff tablecloths set with silver cutlery and fine china, very grand indeed. There were plenty of choices for breakfast, coffee of your choice, quality tea, cereals, breads, pastries, cakes, fruit, bacon, eggs, cold cuts, cheeses, etc.

The staff were always polite and helpful. The hotel is a short 15 minute walk into the main centre of Padova, 10 minute walk to Cappella degli Scrovegni, and Venice is a 30 minute train trip away. We had a wonderful time in Padova, there is lots to see, we made full use of our Padova Card during the stay.

I can add nothing to the last review from May 2010.Everything is still the same high standard and I continue to wonder if , one day , we are going to be disappointed. It has not happened so far. Long may it continue to thrive and Signor Capovilla continue to rule his small empire.

I booked this hotel because it was close to the railway station and it was a good idea as I arrived when it was snowing out of season in early March after a fantastic 12 hour train trip with forwards moving window seats from Paris. I dragged my case down the snow laden track and there it was - a light shining across the square from the station. The lovely lady at the check in spoke fantastic lilting English - much better than my dreadful Italian. The room was clean and pleasant. However breakfast was an adventure. There was an urn marked coffee that had in it dreadful ditchwater stuff. There were a few hard looking unattractive bread rolls. Then a very elegant European couple came in. They were given fresh expresso coffee and a wonderful fresh loaf appeared. I asked for expresso and also received it. I am a dilapidated not so young Australian so I suppose the staff thought I might be happy with the ditch water and the cardboard rolls. The next morning as I knew these delights existed I asked for and received proper coffee and bread. If I had not seen the others get it the first morning I would not have known it was possible. This is why I have marked the service down for this hotel. The internet cost 5 Euros a day. Every time I logged in it seemed to have forgotten that I had previously logged in. When I checked out the man on the reception had to double check how long I had been there. I was only charged for the two days. The reception staff were all very nice and helpful. The breakfast staff should have offered me the good coffee and bread even though I am an Antipodean. I enjoyed staying there as it was a lovely old building and very convenient for the station and the tram outside could take me anywhere. The lady the first night recommended a restaurant that I really enjoyed for which I have also just written a review - Ristorante Pepen. Padova is wonderful. I had booked to go to the Scrogveni Chapel on line and arrived a bit early. They let me in half way through one session and then they let me stay longer as there were not many in the next group. I would love to go back to Padova for a longer visit to see Galileo's university and the botanic garden. Just walking around the streets is lovely. I will probably stay at the Grand Italia Hotel again.

Rather than spend a fortune basing ourselves in Venice, we decided to stay in nearby(ish) Padua and it was a very good idea. We managed to visit Venice and Verona easily and this hotel is pretty much straight across the road from the train station.

Usually that would be a bad thing but in Padua, that area is far from bad - the station is modern and has good facilities (we made a lot of use of the nice Spar supermarket there), I felt perfectly safe in the area, and it is a fairly short walk into the central of Padua.

The hotel itself is modern (probably fairly recently refurbished) with helpful polite staff and clean quiet rooms. The bathroom was great. The cleaners kept the place spotless.

We can't speak for the breakfasts (as we never made it that far) but Padua is full of great places to eat and is worth a visit in its own right. A day in Padua is definitely worth it and probably deserves more attention than it gets.