We highly recommend Essence in Barletta, Italy. It’s located about a 5 minute walk from the central train station and 10-12 minutes from the Duomo and Colossus. Our airy room was sparkling clean, from crisp bed linens to the cool tile floor. The rain/hand shower is the best we have encountered in several weeks in Europe so far this year. The room had juice, a basket offering a choice of many breakfast items. There was a coffee maker, little cappuccino machine, and a teapot as well. Our main objective in staying in Barletta was to visit the nearby Cannae Battlefield (where Hannibal famously defeated the Romans) and museum. Here, Anna Maria, who runs Essence, proved extremely resourceful. We arrived in Barletta on a holiday; there was not a taxi in sight at the train station. But Anna Maria had arranged a driver for us! Carlo picked us up at the train station, took us by Essence to leave our luggage, drove us past vineyards and olive groves to Cannae and returned for us two hours later. If not for Anna Maria’s arranging the outing for us, we would have missed our long-anticipated visit to Cannae. When Carlo dropped us off at Essence, Anna Maria was there to be sure all was well. And she came the next morning with fresh croissants! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The one caveat would be that our room was up several flights of stairs and there is no elevator, so travelers who are elderly or who have heavy luggage should be aware. (We are both elderly and have heavy bags, and we managed just fine!)

We liked everything!

In our entire trip, I think this place was the most modern. It has really good shower. The beds are comfy. The owner stated those are memory foam. It also has that small fancy coffee machine.

I think the lack of elevator. For some of us who had bad knees, the plight of stairs was a challenge. The second was the breakfast. I looked at some photos from guests in 2018 and there were pastry, a couple of croissants, ham and cheese. However, we only got 2 croissants with fillings per room. I wondered if it was due to Covid.

Very clean, modern room. Nice balcony to enjoy breakfast. Best shower I've had at a hotel. Coffee making facilities and complementary breakfast items were great. Had a delivery of fresh pastries every morning from a local pasticceria.

Small inconvenience was the 2 flights of stairs to get up to the room. Got used to it after a few nights though.

Probably one of the cleanest and most modern rooms we stayed in Italy. The breakfast in the room is a welcome change for people that like to sleep longer

The room was spacious with a lovely bathroom to the side

The breakfast was very disappointing. There was a selection of prepackaged dry croissants, biscuits etc. In short nothing for people who have to avoid sugar! There was a coffee machine and a milk frother for us to make ourselves coffee.

The room was fine. Hostess very helpful. Location very good. All clean and comfortable.

The 40 steps up to the room need to be taken into consideration for old gits like us.

Anna Maria is very kind and welcoming host. She agreed on late check-in and provided us with all the help and stuff needed. Her b&b is cozy, spacious and clean. As a bonus, there is great pizza place next to it :)

The location is great, however, if one leaves the window open during the night, it can be quite noisy, but with closed no problems at all.

Alles bestens! Everything perfect. Thank you, Anna Maria

Very nice host and wonderful room.

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