Il Porticello

Please avoid this place. For the price, the rooms were disgusting and neglected, full of dust and dead spiders. The shower had mildew, and the room smelled like stagnant water. You can find a normal hotel by the water in the town center. The host was deceitful about Airbnb bookings and cancellations. We left after ten minutes, then had to figure out where to sleep in the middle of the night, by the side of the road. I’ll never come back. Thank goodness Airbnb refunded the money, because otherwise we would have had a problem.

The ocean view was lovely, the place wasn’t touristy, and there was a nice little beach about 300m away. The pool was clean and OK. We spent two weeks here on our 2021 holiday, but the place is far too expensive for what you get. The pictures suggest a certain standard, but it felt more like camping. The road from the main street to the house was badly damaged by weather, and you had to drive carefully to avoid damaging your car. It needs fixing. The bathrooms were very dirty and smelled bad, with no sign of investment in basic needs for years. I checked other rooms to make sure it wasn’t just ours, and they were the same. All the sports equipment provided, including ping pong and pool billiards, was broken. It’s fine not to offer those things, but if they’re there, they should be maintained. Our top-floor apartment with a terrace had no fly screen. We asked for one and were ignored. Most of the kitchen tools were old and unpleasant to use, so we had to buy some at a nearby shop. The owners should keep the bathrooms and shared spaces at an acceptable level through regular investment. I can’t recommend staying here in its current state. Older reviews make it sound like it may have been better in the past, but something seems to have happened to the quality and management.

The location by the sea and swimming pool was the one good part of our stay. We spent two weeks in July 2021 with our family, in the Mandorle and Torre apartments at porticello, and found the standards disappointing. The beds were old, the sheets didn't seem properly clean, and the kitchen barely had what we needed to cook. There wasn't hot water for washing dishes. One washing machine serves all the apartments, and you have to ask for permission and a time to use it. We wouldn't recommend staying here.

We paid a high nightly rate for four nights at Porticello, expecting better quality, and the stay felt more like camping. The view and location were nice, with access to a rocky beach, and the pool was decent. But the linens were dirty, some torn, and one had a bloodstain. Furniture and glass panes were broken, the bathrooms were disgusting, and the kitchen supplies seemed 20 years old. The balcony was a serious worry with our two small children: its ledge was only 50 cm high, so we had to watch them constantly. The pool table and ping pong tables were broken too. Hot water came and went because, we were told, the solar tank could run out and leave the whole complex without it. We were sold on a “georgous mansion” and got a shanty. Maybe it was lovely years ago, and it has plenty of potential, but now it's far from that. Please avoid.