Hotel Villa Maria

The room itself was nice once you set aside the ant infestation. Breakfast was cereal, croissants and a few fruits, with tea and coffee made for you each day. The breakfast staff member spent a lot of time on her phone chatting with friends, so I had to wait for her call to end before I could ask for another cup of tea. Some clothes went missing from our room. I contacted booking.com and got a little compensation. Management said the ants were on the floor, although the picture shows the bedside table, and claimed we lost our clothes at the beach. We didn’t go swimming or to the beach in October. This was a motorbiking touring holiday. How would they know where we’d been? The hotel says on its website that staff speak English, but their English was very poor. Management told me it was good enough for a 3-star hotel, which is ridiculous. Their template reply said they’d owned the place for over 100 years and trust their staff, without even asking what happened. Pino was my point of contact. I never met him, but his dialogue sounded unreasonable. Pino seems to blame customers for things, as if people are stupid. Be warned!

I really enjoyed my stay and would happily come back. The hotel’s location is great, though getting there means taking a train from Centrale, around 40 minutes, then walking another 10 minutes. It was worth the trip. The room was clean, nicely furnished with antiques, and had a very comfortable bed. Breakfast was included, with a great range of continental buffet options in a room that felt like a restaurant. The staff were friendly and helpful. I’d recommend it to everyone.

The staff did try to be nice, which is the only reason I’m giving an extra star. The location works if you’re heading to the beach, but it’s not so convenient for the centre. Trains run only from 5 to 22:00, so after that you’re stuck taking a taxi, which can get very expensive. Breakfast was a joke, mostly different kinds of bread and croissants. If you came very early, there might be a couple slices of ham or salami, still in the packaging they came in. My view was literally a wall, but I could hear the street loudly. The walls are paper thin and the doors block no sound, so you hear people walking, talking, everything. One night someone was vacuuming at 2am and woke me up. There was hair all over the bed blanket, the shower had mould in the corner, and water drained too slowly.

This place is unbelievable. We’d planned to stay here on vacation, but then a terrorist attack and war began in Israel. All the flights were cancelled and the airport was closed. I was also called up for a military emergency. We tried explaining what had happened, but they didn’t care and charged us anyway.