I should have sent this review months ago and I apologise to the Donatello for not having posted this review sooner.

After our holiday to a hotel in Rome had been cancelled at very short notice in September 2006, my wife and I had only a few days to rearrange our family holiday. Suitable hotels at short notice in Rome during the month of September is very difficult and our second choice, Venice, appeared to be fully booked and was out of the question.

My wife and I have travelled many times to Italy and as Padova was on our list of cities to visit, by good fortune, the Donatello were able to take our booking at short notice. We travelled via Treviso airport and having pre-arranged a car to Padova, the transfer time was about 45 minutes.

We were given three rooms, each facing the Basilica of San Antonio. All the rooms were very clean, bright and the air conditioning was good. Our room, which was at the corner of the building overlooking the piazza and the street running off the piazza, was very comfortable.I did not see any of the other rooms in the hotel but would recommend the rooms overlooking the piazza.

Breakfast was the standard fare found in a lot of Italian hotels but was more than adequate for us. There was a good choice of restaurants and pizzerias within a five minute walk of the hotel and all were reasonably priced.

Having visited Venice on a number of occasions, my wife and I can appreciate the attraction that Venice has but Padova has a lot to offer. The people of Padova (Padovese??) were very friendly
and through a mixture of badly spoken Italian from myself and a little bit of English from the local people we met, everything went well.

I would thoroughly recommend visitors to Padova to spend some time at the Scrovegni chapel and the Botanical gardens. The Scrovegni chapel was about 25 minutes walk from the hotel and the gardens no more than 5 minutes. The museum linked to the Scrovegni is also worth a visit.

If the pull of Venice is too much, it can be easily reached by train (40 minutes journey) for less than 10 euros return per person (2006 prices).

We would thoroughly recommend the Donatello and we will return in the future.