Part of trying to find accessible hotels when traveling is to start searching early. As we all know, only a small percentage of hotels have accessibility options and of the hotels that do there might only be one or two rooms that are actually accessible. Add to that the need to be near accessible transportation and all-of-a-sudden the pool of rooms that you can choose from becomes very small. You are often stuck having to pay far more than you wanted just to get basic accessibility needs met. Hence the need to start looking and book early.
I unfortunately only had about a two-month lead time for planning my trip to Milan, Italy. While for the average traveler that is far more than enough time for planning, it was down to slim pickings for accessibility by the time I started. I am an ambulatory wheelchair user, and I knew that there were a couple of tours I wanted to take where I could only use my cane. To make that possible and not push myself too badly on those days, I decided I needed to have a hotel near where the tours picked up (to reduce walking). But it also needed to be wheelchair accessible because if I was locked into only using a cane for at least two days of the trip, I knew I would have to be using my wheelchair all the other days. I know my body and its limits. I also am cheap and try to avoid paying for taxis if at all possible. I prefer to use other modes of public transportation, but in many cities the accessibility of buses and metros/subways is very unreliable. I live in fear of showing up at a subway station deep underground to discover that the elevator is broken and I am stuck.
So, I needed an accessible hotel in Milan near either the main tourist area near the Duomo or near one of the main train stations since those were the places tours left from. While there were accessible options available in multiple places, the hotels with accessibility near the Duomo were way out of my price range. I generally start my search on sites like Hotels.com or Booking.com because they have filters for accessibility (like has an elevator, accessible from street to room…). When I find something that looks promising, I go to the hotel’s actual webpage and then contact them directly. I can’t trust that what is reported on such sites is accurate and I want to hear from the hotel directly that they can accommodate me and my wheelchair.
I found a hotel in Milan near the Central Milan Train Station. It was a couple of blocks away from the station and–as I later discovered—on the opposite side of the train station from where the tours pick up (they pick up more northwest and my hotel was southeast). But it was close to the taxi area at Central Train Station which was convenient. The area was very nice with wide streets, restaurants and shops, and always felt safe to us.
Hotel Andreola Central is on Via Domenico Scarlatti just a couple of blocks from the Central Train Station. Google maps showed that it was a 5-minute wheelchair accessible path from the train station to the hotel. The train from the airport came directly to Milan Central and I could leave from it to go elsewhere in Italy. When I contacted them about two months before my trip I found out that yes, they had an elevator and that the lobby (and all parts of the hotel) were wheelchair accessible. Their fully accessible room (with all the bathroom accessibility additions) was already booked for the dates of my trip, but they told me that there were wheelchair accessible rooms available. The room was pricier than I would have liked, but as I’m discovering, outside of the US, anywhere with an elevator usually is.
Upon arrival, things weren’t as easy as I had hoped. Leaving the train station we quickly learned that there was not actually an accessible sidewalk route to the hotel. The sidewalk around the train station in theory leads to a crosswalk with a curb cut to go down the street to the hotel, but in one place the sidewalk is completely blocked to wheelchairs by a tree and a city trash can with no other way around it. Crossing the road to the other sidewalk was also blocked by construction. So I discovered that I had to take my wheelchair down the middle of the street with parked cars on both sides around a corner with blocked visibility any time I went in between the hotel and the train station. It was nerve-racking and scary every time.
When we finally made it to the hotel, we saw that the main front door was a step up to a revolving door. But they had a side door with a narrow ramp. That door can only be opened from the inside. Generally, my daughter would have to go inside to open the door for me. I’m not sure what I would have done if I had been traveling alone. The ramp was too steep to stop on and knock at the door (and hope the desk clerk hears) and the main door was inaccessible. On that note, the few times we had a taxi drop us off in front of the hotel, the curb cuts were blocked, and I had to travel down the middle of the street to be able to get up onto the sidewalk.
Once inside, the lobby was accessible and there was a small elevator on the far side of the lobby. And I mean it is small. My wheelchair took up most of the space in it with my daughter barely squeezing in beside me. The main difficulty was that the elevator has two doors 90 degrees from each other. So, if you enter in straight you then have to turn in that very tiny tight space 90 degrees to exit the elevator.
The room was a very pretty room, albeit small (Room 326). There was not much extra space around the bed, so my wheelchair took up a great deal of possible walkways. The entrance hall was also very narrow, so I found it easier to have my daughter pull my wheelchair out into the hall instead of me attempting to turn it around in the room or back up in it. The bathroom had a telephone, and a safety pull cord in it, but otherwise had no other accessible features (like grab bars or shower seats). The bed was hard, but the sheets were comfortable.
Breakfast at the hotel was included with our room. The breakfast restaurant is located on the atrium level that is accessible by the elevator. While you can get to the restaurant and the tables in a wheelchair, getting to and around the buffet bar is very difficult. The buffet is situated at the far back of the restaurant so trying to get around all the tables is difficult and it is a very tight and narrow space to navigate around it. It does have a nice selection of breads, pastries, juices, cheeses, meats, yogurts, and fruits with hot eggs and sausages. You can order things like omelets and smoothies for extra charges, and all sorts of coffees and teas can be ordered from the waitstaff and are included with the meal. As a person in a wheelchair with only one arm, I relied on my daughter to get me food from the buffet because it was just too tight a space to be easily navigated. I am sure the waitstaff would have brought me food if I had asked, but it was not a very accessible setup.
Hotel Andreola Central was adequate. It was not fully accessible in many ways, especially for someone traveling alone, but it was accessible enough for us to me able to make it work. Others might need more accessibility, but some might be able to make it work for them.
