斯卡勒塔飯店

E' più un B&B che un hotel 3 stelle: la reception è aperta solo per ricevere i clienti e per le colazioni; viene consegnata una chiave che, oltre la camera, apre anche la porta esterna. Quindi si è autonomi. Però la camera è spaziosa e pulita, il bagno con una buona doccia (senza bidet), la signora (l'unica che parla un pò di italiano) molto gentile e affabile. Il letto non era comodo: cuscini morbidissimi e piumone non traspirante. Colazione con scelta limitata

Location: not bad. On the edge of the town but only a few minutes walk from the Roman ampitheatre and 10 mins walk from the city centre. Next door to the nearby convenience store we discovered a basic but cheap and cheerful bar full of friendly local characters, where my group gathered for a beer each evening before going into town. Hotel: it’s rather basic, with dated décor of the fake flowers and random ornaments variety. Not suitable for a romantic weekend away, but is fine for a group of friends. Breakfast: a basic but acceptable buffet: cold meats and cheeses, fruit, bread/pastries, olives, tomatoes, hardboiled eggs and cereals. There were a few issues: in one of the rooms, the air con and fridge didn’t work, we couldn’t work out how to turn the TV on (but that wasn’t a big deal) one of the power points didn’t work and sparks and smoke came out of the hairdryer when it was turned on. The staff quickly sorted the air con and provided a new hairdryer when we mentioned it, but we thought that maybe the electrics generally could benefit from being checked over. In this context, the lack of a fire escape from the top floor was a bit worrying, as was the fact that if someone else has locked the front door you need to use a key in order to get out of the building. At one point I found I was locked in, as I’d left the key upstairs with my room-mate so had to go back up two flights of stairs to get it. The fact that only one key is provided per room (not per guest) is inconvenient if room-mates are coming and going at different times as we were asked to take the key when we went out, rather than leave it behind reception. Staff: the receptionist was friendly and helpful, but the member of staff in charge of the breakfast room was rather scary and told us off for (variously) using too many plates, sitting at the wrong tables, helping ourselves to juice after the 10am deadline and attempting to take our cups of tea upstairs to the room (as there are no tea-making facilities in the rooms). Observations on Pula generally: an attractive little city with interesting architecture and history and a good variety of bars and restaurants. Pleasingly, very few drunk Brits there; it seems to attract an older crowd. There is some graffiti but generally the city is pretty clean and we didn’t see any signs of crime. Most of the Croatians we met (waiters, shopkeepers etc) speak very good English and enjoy using it.