Arcobaleno

General

Left: Arcobaleno when it was a hotel (much nicer then). Just a gist of what it looks like from the outside so you know you found it when you get there

Middle/Right: The rear side of Arcobaleno in the winter from a balcony and the plaza.

Bocconi Description:

Located 30 minutes by tram from Università Bocconi. Single room (furnished with bed, wardrobe and desk) in double-places apartment (2 separate single rooms in a double occupancy apartment). Each apartment is furnished with shared bathroom (shower or bath tube), a little room with microwave and refrigerator, small terrace, air conditioning, phone and Internet connection. Community kitchens available on the floor, laundry room, TV lounge cleaning service and clean linens provided once a week. Electricity and heating included in the monthly rent. Only on-street parking is available. No guests between midnight - 7.00 a.m. Reception 24 hours a day

Approximate costs:

Deposit: €600

Single room: €600/month, utilities included

My experience at Arco (what everyone calls it) was fun. My Italian diminished to nothing while I lived there because everyone in the dorm spoke English. It is doable but it will not be as easy as if you lived with someone who solely spoke Italian. You will meet a lot of people at Arco and probably become very close to people on your floor. You will always have people to travel with on weekends and party with during the week. There is also a basketball court, a track (past the tram stop) and a park next to Arco if you want to get some exercise.

Directions

See Attachment

Rooms

The rooms on the Bocconi virtual tour are incredibly deceptive. A former 4-star hotel is not by any means close. Italy's 4-star hotels are not the same standard as a US 4-star hotel. You are given a bed with sheets and pillows provided, a desk, grid cabinet as well as wooden closets. The bedrooms facing the street are bigger than the rooms facing the plaza. The pictures below are of my old room that was facing the plaza. They give you European towels. By this I mean it is a very thin towel, that is not fuzzy or very effective. I ended up using a towel from a Best Western Hotel in Munich from Oktoberfest. I highly recommend bringing a towel or two from home. Another thing is, I got lucky and was left hangers in my closet, but a lot of people didn't have them and hangers are very expensive there.

Maids/Laundry

Maids come once a week. Generally Floor 1 is on Mondays, Floor 2 on Tuesday, etc. They do not speak any English. They lag a lot so if you get them first thing in the morning and you like sleeping in like me it will be an aggravation. They get lazy towards the end of the day. If you live at the end of a hall there will be times where they don't feel like doing their job. There were a number of times my bed wasn't made and floor wasn't swept, etc. So be aware of that. If you have a friend visiting from out of town or someone is staying with you, I recommend putting a note in Italian on your door with a post it or something telling them not to disturb you. They will get you in trouble. But even with a note, they will be obnoxiously loud cleaning outside your room so sleeping during that period is not probable.

Also during winter it gets really cold. Some rooms will give you an extra blanket but I recommend bringing another one because they are cheap about when they allow the heat to be on. They would turn it off around midnight and literally the entire floor would wake up around 3am freezing.

The laundry room is located on floor zero (lobby) on the left side once you enter the building on a room right of the elevators.

Kitchen/Food

As for the kitchen, there is a full set of dishes and cutlery. Some rooms are lucky (like mine) where someone left a hot plate and I recommend buying one. You are given a mini-fridge and a microwave. You can always use the kitchen on the first floor which is not the lobby floor (that's floor 0). There are no dishes or anything there just a stove. There are no ovens in the complex. The kitchen on the first floor is also a great place to socialize. There are also vending machines on the first floor. What you get in your room and kitchen really depends on what the people before left behind for you. I was nice and left red dixie cups because they are impossible to find. The market is located right around the corner. Go out the building make a right, then a left, and Esselunga will be on the right. In the back of the store make sure to get a Fidel Card, it's like market club card to get discounts and points. The points accumulated at the end of the semester or year you'll be able to use to get something cool. I got a Swiss Army knife.

Security

As for security, there is one person at the desk in the front of the lobby. Most of the time you just walk through and they don't say anything but sometimes they ask for your key. They don't really regulate who comes in and out, especially after hours. That being said, don't leave stuff in the halls or leave your door unlocked if you're not home or are passed out from drinking. In addition there are metal screens that are right outside your door to the balcony. I recommend putting them down at night or whenever you travel. A negative side to that is it that blackouts out the room so you could wake up disoriented.

Hallway and Kitchen

Bedroom (at the end of the cabinets, the desk starts)

Bathroom with our hole in ceiling (only in Room 231, cause odds are they haven't fixed it cause they are lazy)