Montana

The meals were the biggest letdown for me. On the first night, dinner was acceptable: I had pasta and an omelet as the vegetarian option, and others had pasta with a meat fillet and sauce. Breakfast was fine by typical Italian standards, though the coffee disappointed me. For the later fixed-menu dinners, we had to choose in the morning from three starters and three mains, with dessert a “surprise.” My vegetarian choices were tomato risotto or Greek salad. The salad was cucumber, red onion, corn, chickpeas, olives, feta cubes, and a strange watery-hummus-like sauce. It looked like food that had already been eaten and sent back (see attached photo). Dessert was canned fruit in a little bowl, and others in our group were just as unhappy with their meals. In Italy, where the food is famous, that was hard to accept. I’m sure an ordinary Italian home would serve food hundreds of times better. A sfogliatella, tiramisu, gelato, or cannoli would have been a more Italian dessert. The room was cramped even for one person. My suitcase blocked the hallway when open, and I had to climb over it to reach the wardrobe, risking a fall. The shower cubicle was about 65 cm by 65 cm, too small even for a child, let alone an adult man. I’m 190 cm tall and weigh 90 kg. Rusty taps and bathroom mold made it worse. There were only two sockets, one by the desk and one in the bathroom, so I couldn’t charge my phone while using it in bed. The TV signal kept cutting out too. I’d told the hotel a week before arrival that I needed an iron and kettle. Reception said they’d bring them the next day. Only after I insisted did they bring a steamer and kettle straight away. Hotel Montana is in the small village of Sant’Agata, about 30 minutes by bus from Sorrento. There wasn’t much to do there unless you’d booked an excursion. This was the biggest disappointment of our trip to Italy. Four stars seems like an impossible dream for the hotel; realistically, I’d give it no more than two. Hotel Montana was a huge disappointment in an otherwise beautiful and captivating destination.