Palazzo dei Mercanti - Historical Residence in Ascoli Piceno

We were excited to stay here as the kids hadn't stayed at a palace before. However, it really wasn't the 5 star experience we expected. Our "suite" itself was nice enough except it didn't really have any natural light. It was facing into a tiny alley where people liked to scream at all hours. The lack of natural light made the room dark and dreary and a disappointment. At night, there wasn't enough hot water to shower comfortably either. Breakfast was good which is why I gave 2/5. The worst part was when we went to leave and needed our car back from valet parking. We had been told to ring 15-20 minutes before we wanted our car back. This was terrible advice. First of all, we couldn't get through by phone so we had to go to reception ourselves. We were told our car would be next. But it wasn't. We kept being told we were next while we stood outside with our kids and all our bags and it kept not coming. Three cars ended up before us. We had a flight to catch so this was very stressful. The explanation was that the reception staff didn't know these other people had pre-booked and they had to come first or it wasn't fair... What wasn't fair was nearly missing our flight and waiting out in the cold with everything while they told us we were next. The valet guy who was getting the cars kept saying next to. We should have also been told to prebook or at least given some priority after the long wait and a flight to catch. The whole thing left a very sour taste in my mouth. This hotel really doesn't deserve its 5 star rating.