Madison Hotel - Milano, Italy 

We stayed at this hotel for two nights and our stay was very pleasant. It's in a brilliant location for easy access to the central train station and so to the whole of Italy! The staff were courteous and polite. Our room was upgraded free of charge on arrival. I'm quite surprised by the negative comments in some reviews, considering our experience. The room and facilities were absolutely fine. Everything was clean and the bed linen and towels changed each day. The TV was rather dated but, hey, who wants to watch the TV when you're in a great city like Milan! Breakfast was basic but sufficient. Eggs were all boiled in advance and so not always warm, there was a variety of cheeses and meats, cereals and fruit were also available. Breakfast during our stay included fruit juice, coffee etc. with no additional charge for anything offered at breakfast. The hotel is around 250m from the train station (turn right out of the train station, cross the tram tracks and the hotel is signposted) so is fab when you're just about ready to fall down after a long journey! We (two female tourists) experienced no problems at all with any kind of harrassment from people outside the train station. It can be intimidating walking past groups of people, but we honestly had no problems whatsoever. There were some groups of men around kiosks but we had no trouble. We did not return to the hotel late, usually around 9 o'clock, so I don't know if problems experienced by other were perhaps later in the evening. I have a mobility problem and on the first day, taking the advice of the receptionist who said it was approximately a 20 minute walk to the centre, I decided to try it. However, it took me almost an hour with rests in between and on hot day it was simply too far for me. In terms of getting to the city centre using public transport, we used the underground which is directly outside the main entrance to the Centrale Train Station. Again, it's only a 5/10 minute walk from the hotel, the underground service is frequent and you're in the cathedral square in 10 minutes. You can buy tickets for the underground for 1 euro from machines or kiosks before you go through the barriers to the platforms. Fantastic, cheap travel. I definitely recommend this hotel. The reception staff on the two occasions I used them were courteous and helpful. Okay, the hotel is not picturesque, it's a city hotel that offered us good, clean accommodation at a reasonable price in a convenient location.