Hotel Riviera & Maximilian's

The hotel locates at a really nice place, and is very close to the guest house of ICTP. It has perfect surroundings with great sight of the sea. The service is great too, both at the front desk and in the cafeteria.

We were on a road trip through large parts of Italy. Nice convertible, top food and beautiful country as always. But it was 38° outside and we needed tow days at the beach. Coming down from Venice we are looking for a cool place around Trieste with guaranteed top sea access. We did not mind paying (July, no advance booking) for quality and after some search, we booked two nights in a suite at the hotel. Look at the rates, but what did it was the direct lift to the sea from the cliff top, Sorrento style. God, do I regret the money and those two days ! First disappointment were the rooms. I cannot call it a suite: just two adjacent narrow rooms, one with sea view but not comfortable with two sofas and a small desk, the bedroom being on the rear, no view. And a small bathroom straight form the seventies including a small shower with light aluminium doors. No bathtub. Well, after all there is the beach. We arrived late afternoon hot and exhausted, got some plastic cards from reception to get loungers and towels. Took the lift and the doors opened to a paying public beach, a bar with awfully bad and loud live music. No towels, the reception was closed (17:30). Went back up (small and slow lift, lots of people form the public beach), requested towels from reception. Went back down and tried to enjoy sunset while the band was playing and the manager started to close loungers and making us feel we had overextended our stay. I could go on and on. I won't. We ate out as we did not want to take any more risks. All in all worth about a tenth of the price we paid.