Madridman, luckily Alberto speaks and writes in perfect English, because my Espanol is muy poquito -- hope I said that correctly -- very little, actually, and from high school, no less.

This is what Alberto wrote to me:

"Finally, you said you found comments about us in the Madridman's website. Yes, there is a nice guy from Minneapolis [Mongo] who stays with us very often. I will thank him for the comments! (I did not know it, this is the first notice). We lived in Minneapolis many years ago - a long story -, and went back to the U.S. for business and pleasure almost every year since then. But I am not American, I am Italian, raised in South America - Argentina. The reason for my fluency in English is mostly due to the great English-American teachers who taught me, and then my frequent trips to the U.S., and of course, the long stay in Minneapolis."

Anyway, if it had not been for the many that participate on this board that advised me to not stay on the Gran Via, and the many that have posted comments about the hostals that they have stayed at, and especially Mongo's positive review that swayed me about the Hostal Adriano (also the Hostal Adriano website and map helped a lot), I would still be searching for a place to lay my head.

This is an absolutely wonderful forum and it has the best participants. :p