Porretta Terme Hotels with Gym

It is very difficult to write a review of this place, because it was chosen for me as part of a tour and not by me. The hotel itself is lovely, the staff is very friendly and attentive and obviously the spa services are a treat. Loved the spa pool itself after a day of sight seeing. My only drawback, as it is with most hotels these days, is that they use very firm mattresses and theirs killed my back. I wish hotels offered different types of mattresses per floor and gave you a choice. If you were looking to stay off the beaten path, then Porretta Terme could be a good choice: it's a very quaint little town along the Reno river with a variety of shops and restaurants and has some great street art. Having said all this, as a person who was in Italy for the first time, I found that staying in a place that was about a hour and a half away from both Florence and Bologna by both car and train to be a little problematic, especially when there is a high speed train between Bologna and Florence that only takes a half hour. I felt a bit trapped staying so far outside the cities and would have stayed in Bologna if I had it to do over again. I find it's better to stay in a central city and travel outside of it than the other way around. But a more seasoned Italy traveller might prefer Porretta Terme.