Hotel in Piazza Armerina Sicily?

[Karen Frerichs]

I'm lucky enough to be included in a last minute trip to Sicily, leaving next week; (someone dropped out of a group of 4 friends, so they asked me to fill in). The arrangements have all been made, but we just realized that the friend booking the hotels has left out 2 nights that were to be spent in Piazza Armerina... if anyone has a good idea, I'd love to hear it.
Looking at booking sites, I think we won't have trouble finding 2 rooms, because it's off-season, but... ???

Also, any restaurants?

Thanks,
Karen

 

[Sidney]

Karen, I hope you had a great trip. I am looking for places to stay in Piazza Armerina, Siracusa and the west coast (Trapani? Or ?) and the Agrigento area for a trip in May. I have been looking for one bedroom apartments, but would also consider hotels or B&B's. Can you share where you stayed? Any other insights or suggestions? Anyone else out there with places to recommend? Thanks!

 

[Karen Frerichs]

Hi Sidney,

Yes, on the whole it was a good trip...rain included. Got back in time for a jet-lagged Thanksgiving, so now will look up some notes for you. we started in Catania, drove a loop around My Etna to Taormina, then south to Siracusa and west through Ragusa, Agrigento, Piazza Amerina, on way back to Catania. So, never got further west than Agrigento, but here are some places to try:

In Piazza Amerino, we stayed at a rather fancy agroturismo several kilometers out of town, so you would need a car...

http://www.gigliotto.com

We had a nice lunch in the main piazza pf Piazza Amerino, at La Locanda (del Tommasso?)...corner of the Piazza Duomo.
The Villa Romano de Casale was worth the driving around... amazing mosaics, but reduced winter hours, so we had a day to hike around P Amerino in the rain, and luckily found the Locanda still open... winter hours and closures everywhere... went back to the Roman Villa the next morning. Double check everything if you are going off-season!

Sadly, the one place I don't really recommend is the place we stayed in Agrigento, although the young couple running it were very nice, and the restaurant was lovely.
B and B Villa Pirandello was, I'm sure, chosen by the friends who did the planning for it's name (and we did spend some time looking for and seeing Luigi Pirandello's birthplace/museum).

http://www.villapirandello.com

It was a bit outside of the main area of town, but walkable if there is no rain (we had rain). It is on a hillside, so several stairways are involved to get to it, if that is an issue. My room was the blue one on the website pix, and my problem with it was NO natural light as it is built into the hillside... those curtains in the picture are to the back of some bushes on the higher level and could not be opened. Also, what looks like OK, colorful walls are painted in metallic paint. It gets good reviews on TA, etc, but I really missed having a window. If you go, ask for the room in red... it is on a corner of the lower terrace, and has windows and a french door, for light. The off-season price was good, however.... and as I said, the manager was very nice.
Because of the rain, we only ventured to a nearby trattoria for dinner (don't know the name), and the next night went to the restaurant of the BnB because it was right there... and it was very good, not associated with the BnB but the owners are friends. Wish I could remember the name, but it has the same address as the BnB.

So, Siracusa... liked it a lot, wonderful museum. We stayed at the Hotel Gutkowski, which someone on another thread here did not like, but I think the intervening 14 years have made some changes for the better. We liked it a lot... nicely up-dated in a cheerful, kinda hip, way, very nice people and a good breakfast buffet, reasonable prices. It is on the edge of Ortigia, which was all very walkable. I can really recommend it.

www.guthotel.it

We had a good dinner in Siracusa at this place:

http://www.siciliaintavola.eu/siciliaintavola.eu/Home.html

and one day I had just done too much walking and went back to the Gutkowski Hotel, where I had a late lunch at the cafe next door ... a great soup... not open for dinner, but convenient, and quite good.

Ragusa, if you go, has a lovely hotel and restaurant, the Hotel Orologio:

http://www.hoteldellorologio.com/en/

and if you are a Montalbano fan... so are the Ragusans ... Ai Lumi is a trattoria with a sign letting us know that Montalbano eats there... we, of course, were too early for lunch.

I hope this helps, I'm looking forward to another trip that will include the west.

Cheers,
Karen

 

[Pauline]

Isn't it against the law to rent a room with no window! I guess it sort of had one. Our vacation rental in the Aosta area in September had metallic paint too - ugh!

We saw a similar part of Sicily on our trip a few years ago and liked it.

 

[Karen Frerichs]

Hi, Pauline...

Well, yes, it DID have a window... very high up, which I had to close by pull chains because it was so chilly.
The problem was the curtain had no such device, so couldn't be opened, therefore no natural light. Yes, ugh to the metallic paint... too bad, because the couple running the place were really nice, and the garden and restaurant were
also good.

And yes, I really liked that part of Sicily, but when I go back, I think I'd concentrate more on the coasts. Glad I made the trip, and saw the various Greek and Roman ruins, though.