Hotel Villa dei Cesari

The restaurant staff working evenings were friendly and professional, and the lobby has decent modern furniture and a nice design. The restaurant is spacious, with a bar serving plenty of beers and cold drinks. The food itself was bland, like basic canteen fare with no extra care. At breakfast there was juice, coffee, tea and yogurt, but the two older women running it were often late opening the restaurant. They'd arrive around 6:50, though breakfast was meant to start at 7, and guests sometimes waited until 7:00-7:15 to get in. Even after we sat down, they were still setting things up and seemed unable to get a normal table service routine going. In 20 years of traveling, even in the most remote places in Africa, I haven't seen such a careless, lazy attitude. There was no effort, and the eggs were cold, possibly from the night before or even earlier. The butter was so bad I joked that it must be from a city in Russia. The rooms are big, clean and neat, and some have terraces, but the beds and mattresses feel like they're from World War II, with every spring digging into you. The TV is smaller than my iPad, and you can't really watch it from bed. The toilet smell was awful, and the walls are so thin you could hear a fly fart from five rooms away. The owner's wife, I think, searched guests' supermarket bags at the entrance and wouldn't hand over a room key until she'd checked them. We had to leave the key at reception even if we were only going out for a short walk. Her husband was very friendly and even stopped the grumpy middle-aged woman from searching bags. At checkout, a woman from breakfast kept ringing and knocking like mad to get the three of us seamen out, even though breakfast had been late for two weeks. This was my first, only and last stay here. Just thinking about it still makes me shake my head, and I won't stay again.

For a three-star hotel, it was more than fine. The design is lovely, the restaurant food was good, and the staff were kind. The rooms felt clean and cozy. The shower, though, is tiny. You'd need to be skinny to fit in.

Dinner was served in the garden, and both the food and service were good. The rooms were okay, though the bathroom smelled of chlorine and the Wi-Fi was lousy. From the balcony there was a beautiful bay view. It's a small family-run place, and I wouldn't mind a little pantry in the room and more effective air conditioning. Breakfast was pretty dull.

This was the worst hotel I've ever stayed in. My room was 105. The air conditioning didn't work, the bed and door knob were broken, and there wasn't even complimentary water. I complained about the AC, but they made no arrangements to fix things. I'd tell anyone to think twice and check the room before booking.