Residence Letojanni Taormina

I am very, very, very disappointed with my experience in Sicily. In my previous experience as a tourist abroad, I have never felt so offended. First of all, Sicily is beautiful. No doubt about that. Rich in culture and history, with lots of spectacular sceneries and magnificent cuisine. And that's it! From here on my opinion splits from most of the others. At the beginning of August 2024, as a gift to ourselves after our wedding at the end of July, me and my wife planned a trip to Sicily, Italy .  We did it through a local travel agency. The agency's choice of hotels was more than controversial, but this is another different storyline. What I was amazed by was the existing opinion about Sicilians. In particular that they are actually hospitable. But I'll come back to that later. I will start with our hotel - Orizzonte 4*....No, not a 4* !!! Not by any existing standard outside of Italy at least! No laundry service, no irons (and I do not mean that they don't have spare ones...they don't have irons at all...), no clothes drier or service. No working lobby bar. Nothing at all. To all my questions starting with "Do you have..." the answers were "No, we don't." Oh sorry, they had a drier...a wired one on the ceiling of the hotel, where we were advised to dry our clothes. Yeah, you read it right - on the top floor of the hotel. Btw the mini fridge was heating on the outside. No comment. Now, the breakfast. At breakfast - even though the hotel guests at that time consisted of only 2-3 couples including us, the restaurant staff never cared to refill the meals or at least to diversify the menu. So we had te same stuff all week long. Particularly "interesting " was a tomato salad cup that stayed there for 3 days (in the phenomenal heat, even on the inside of the hotel) and got mold on in the end. The other meals also started to smell "suspicious" and only because one of the hotel's guests felt bad one day(but not because of the food actually) they decided it was time to get rid of that hedgehog-like tomatoes. But this was only breakfast. It is something we could generally ignore. From our week-long stay in Letojanni, Sicily however, we have faced only the indifference of the locals to tourists. specifically to non-Italian speakers to be precise. First of all, you can not claim to be a tourist destination and not know a single word of English! No! Nein! Не! And here's where the "fun" starts. We as tourists faced a language barrier, though in Europe (although it didn't feel like Europe)...and all because Italians, Sicilians, or should I say Letojannians (since every province or municipality is a country of its own...) are too proud to learn the international language - English. Whenever and whoever we tried to talk to in English we got a haughty, even angry attitude because we do not speak Italian. To all our polite questions starting with "Do you speak English?" the answer was "not much..." or there was no answer at all, just a tornado of

This hotel is a mess. Tiles missing, bugs and worms in rooms. Mattresses are old and felt like we were sleeping on the floor. Flies all over the breakfast buffet. The view from our balcony was breath taking and Mt Etna was right there. Will never stay there again. And do not recommend.

Place is badly maintained and room needs uplift. In addition, there is no one in office and you have to call to get hold of someone and wait for them to come to give you the key. The location is nice with ocean view and close to Taormina but you will need a car to get there.