Beautuful hotel in Siracusa, good breakfast. Pool was amazing. However €5 for a towel! Hotel was a 5 minute taxi ride from Oritigia (main attractions or start of tours) @ €15. Red bus out front of hotel no 105 to Oritigia was €0.50c.

Hotel reception were not that helpful.

The hotel had bags of character. From walking in you can feel the history. It is a truly unique place to stay and for the price we felt we got our moneys worth (c€1000 for the last week September). The rooms and pool have been recently refurbished to a high standard. Especially the pool area which was a great relaxing spot. I got the impression they do updates to the hotel in the winter for summer peak. So it should keep getting better and better. I would focus on reviews for the summer just gone as that’s when the pool was completed. Beers by the pool were around €5 - more expensive than in the bars but pretty good for a pool bar. The location is a half an hour walk from Ortigia. That worked for us. Some people said the walk wasn’t pleasant in the reviews but we found it fine and it is down hill on the way there. There is a bus (105) that comes every 15 mins. We kept missing it and just walking instead which helped work off the copious amounts of pasta we ate. It was also great for the attractions of Syracuse itself with the archaeological sites around a 15min walk away. The free parking was also a plus as we hired a car to get around other parts of Sicily. Breakfast was largely European continental buffet style. There was some cooked elements - scrambled egg, sausages and bacon but they didn’t look at appealing to me. There was lots of pastries, cereal, yogurt and fruit which served us well.

If you’re expecting 5* luxury hotel service you won’t get that here. That’s no slight on the staff any question or concern we had they answered but there was no turn down service etc. The other point is that the shower in our room was incredibly small - I don’t think the bathrooms were part of the recent refurbishments - maybe next in their list? But if this is a concern for you you would need to pick a larger room than the standard.

The history and grandeur of the place is undeniable. Lovely swimming pool. Comfortable beds.

Some weird eccentricities that don’t fit a 4* - while bookings keep coming the Director General (hilarious responses to reviews on Trip Advisor) will ignore the many suggestions but failure to make changes will eventually impact business. These include - €5 per pool towel, undrinkable machine coffee at breakfast (€3 charge if you order more than one from the bar), average breakfast that shuts down on the strike of 10am, a bar that shuts at 10pm (bar staff still hanging around but refuse to serve) an unpredictable poolside bar, no kettles or irons in rooms, a happy hour where the drinks are the same price as non-happy hour with not very nice snacks thrown in.

The hotel is gorgeous. We stayed here for a couple of nights at the end of our holiday and after reading the previous reviews we were quite skeptical of how it would be. I think when you read the negative reviews you have to take them with a pinch of salt. This is a 4 star hotel, not 5, and to put it bluntly, you get what you pay for. We booked this as a cheap and cheerful end to the holiday and we were actually so surprised with how nice the hotel was. The staff were all super friendly, always said hello to us as we walked past, they were always happy to book us taxis etc. The breakfast was fantastic, again we were a little worried about this having read the previous comments but we were pleasantly surprised. They had a big selection of pastries, they had hot food, a big selection of meats and cheese, yogurt etc. The hotel grounds are beautiful and well maintained. The only thing worth mentioning is it seems to be for an older crowd, my boyfriend and I are in our 20s but this was never an issue, but might be if you want more of a younger vibe. The room was fantastic, so beautiful and the view out was incredible. A lot of people have also commented about the location, which is bizarre to me as you can see where it is before you book it! It’s not like they can pick up the hotel and move it, if you don’t like the location, don’t stay here. For us, it was lovely and tranquil, away from the town (but still close enough to get a taxi)

Yes you have to pay for towels which is expensive per day, but I’ve been to a lot of hotels that do this. If you don’t want to pay it, go into town and buy a cheap towel? The happy hour is a bit of a con, if you want a cocktail I’d highly recommend going to bar drago across the road, it’s fantastic and open til late!

The whole property was spectacular, from the grand stairs to the entrance, the lobby/library, and the beautiful room with the little Juliet balcony. All very luxurious and the bathroom was the best of our whole trip through Sicily. The breakfast was scrumptious with a lot of variety. The pool was magnificent & it looked like they were in the process of adding an outside bar which would make it even more inviting.

Not really a problem for us as we are walkers, but it is a 45 minute walk into Ortigia.

Extremely beautiful hotel which was extremely well kept and clean. The food and service for dinner was extremely good with very helpful staff. The buffet breakfast was acceptable and tasty The parking facilities were good. Checking in and out was very efficient and fast.

The room was on the small side The bathroom was very cramped Unfortunately no tea or coffee was available in the room The cooked items in the buffet breakfast were not hot at all and very limited

The hotel is beautiful, it has history and story. Breakfast was good, various sweet pastry, different fruits, cereals, bacon, eggs amongst others. Beda are super.comfirtable. There is a "shop" near by to eat altough the hotel offers also dinner at an extra charge. It is near the sea howver no nearby shops, nearest supermarket was like 10 mins away. One can go to ortigia by walk - it takws approx 45 mins. Staff is very nice and educated and all the hotel was clean including towels etc. One has to consider also the taxis in Siracusa are very expensive, our option was to walk.

No nearby shops. Taxis very expensive, the hotel suggested a taxi driver they wor with. We wanted to go to a shopping centre which it takes 11 minutes, the hotel said it will be around €12 however the taxi requested €25 each way. I am stating this so everyone ask for the price.

The hotel is a beautiful, historic building that has been renovated while keeping all the history. The grounds are amazing! The swimming pool is gorgeous with plenty of sun loungers. The rooms were spacious and clean. Breakfast was very peaceful with plenty of choice - pastries, eggs, bread, cereal etc. The parking had plenty of space and was on-site and secure.

When other guests were a disturbance in the pool/main areas, the staff did not manage this so it wasn't as relaxing as it could have been.

- historical hotel with a charm - location of the hotel on top of the historical "latomia" is excellent - walkable distance from the old town (island). Still it's around 2km but the old town it's really easy to go to - hike path nearby - pool is nice - stuff is friendly and helpful

- stained bananas (overripe fruits) on the breakfast. I know it could be called eco but few days in the raw? :) - lacking vegetables for breakfast. Tomatoes would be nice :) - sitting guests not in the main breakfast space during the breakfast. The main space / room is so nice but all the guests (90% of them were pairs) could not sit there (I tried but I was moved to the second space). From a marketing point of view this isn't smart :) - no pool towels included (additionaly paid). Yeah you wrote somewhere that you are eco this way but still in 4* hotel it should be included in the room price - pool chairs are worked out and a bit dirty. Maybe because people are using their own towels which are often small or free towels from the room which are also small ;)

Excellent staff, beautiful Hotel and superb location

There was no restaurant available except for breakfast; however, I was notified about that after the hotel booking was confirmed!! There are no coffee and drink facilities after 10:00 a.m., the end of the breakfast period—very disappointing. No water heater"kettle", or even a small coffee machine in the room!