Our holiday could have been a disaster after Alitalia decided to lose our luggage for the first two days!

That said, the hotel staff were superb and were always available to call Alitalia for 'luggage updates' and also taxis to Catania central. The staff we dealt with at reception and in the bar were very polite, helpful and spoke excellent English.

Room cleaning was a little bizarre but on the good side of bizarre. Very often we had our room cleaned twice in a day with further knocks on the door in case we needed further towels.

The problem with the hotel is that it is based a fair distance from Catania and there isn't much going on in the near vicinity. Therefore the Hotel restaraunt has a captured clientele and charges very high prices for average to good food as a result. The waiters are very sterewotypically Scicilian, meaning they can seem a bit surly without being out and our rude to you.

Breakfast is also a bit hit and miss in terms of if you are offered coffee/tea or not.

The pool was superb, we were at the Romano in late July and the pool was very quiet and always clean and tidy. The guy who looks after the pool and takes orders for food and drinks was very conscientious about keeping everything clean, keeping a number of clean towels and above all being polite and friendly with the customers (he too spoke near perfect English).

All in all, the Romano deserves its 5 star rating by Italian standards at least. You'll have a quiet relaxing time in lovely clean and air conditioned rooms...but... the hotel is about 15 mins away by taxi to Catania. There is nothing to do or no where to eat outside of the immediate vicinity of the hotel. So be prepared to either stay in the hotel at all times and pay a lot of money for average food and service at dinner or be prepared to take lots of taxi rides into Catania.

We have just returned from a 9 night stay, and had a much better holiday than the previous reviewer. The Romano Palace is not a typical "English" holiday hotel, and Catania is not a touristy area, and there were only about 6-10 other Brits in the hotel while we were
there. We have found star ratings in Italian hotels to be over rated compared with England, so we were expecting the Romano Palace to be more like an English 4 star, particularly as the room price was
much lower than other 5 stars in say, Taormina. However, we thought the building and the grounds were beautiful and maintained to the highest standards, and service and food could not be faulted. Our upgraded room overlooked a beautiful garden with a fountain, and had fresh linen daily, and fresh towels twice a day. The pool was possibly the best we have ever had - and drinks and food were available throughout the day. Guests had free access to a beach club a couple of minutes walk away, with complementary parasol and sun loungers. Breakfast was served either outside in a delightful shaded area or in an air-conditioned room depending on the heat - up to 47 degrees! - and the choice and quality was outstanding - including complementary prosecco. Dinner was either outside or in a smaller dining room - again top quality - and we were recommended excellent wines at around 16 - 20 euros.

We found all the staff, but particularly the maitre d' and the restaurant and bar staff, to be professional and obliging, always saying hello, and obviously wanting us to enjoy our stay. Nothing was too much trouble. However, we did notice some guests who treated the staff with disdain received rather off hand service - deservedly so.

The hotel seems mainly geared to weddings -very smart evening dress -and conferences, so when none were taking place, the hotel was very quiet with lots of space, which is preferable to being overcrowded. The only children were a few very well behaved Italians and Sicilians
- again a pleasure when compared to many English children.

The only complaint we had was the dire music throughout the hotel - one cd of Barry White, and one of Doris Day or similar - but the Sicilians love noise and we are in a different culture. We were also surprised to find that the end of Catania airport's runway was just along the road, but it wan't too intrusive, and makes for an easy transfer!

It was our first time in Sicily, and it is very different with lots to see, (including not to be missed - Mount Etna, Roman and Greek amphitheatres, catacombs),and little English spoken outside the tourist areas. Sicilians are very proud of their country, their beaches, their food, their wine, etc. etc., and there are lots of very beautiful women and handsome men. Everyone was friendly, making sure we found our way, or recommending an ice cream, by smiling and sign language. We have rarely felt as welcome in a country. If you want an experience with a totally different culture, rather than just
a holiday, go to Sicily.

The room was adequate, but small for an executive room. The plumbing was somehow interconnected and we frequently ended up with soap suds in our shower from someone elses shower. The housekeeping was erratic, with comsumables either being delivered twice or not at all and rooms remaining unserviced until 4:00pm on a couple of days. The breakfast staff were surly and the quality of the breakfast was bad, with food and juices running out within an hour of opening. Be warned - the Hotel has a public disco on Friday nights that goes on until 4:00am and guests walk around the corridors laughing and talking all night as the public toilets are near the rooms. They constantly have functions during the day and the presentations can be heard in all the rooms. At night, private parties go on until the early hours with the same problems with the public toilets. Car parking is really immadequate especially when there are functions or parties on. Pool bar service does not exist. The hotel bar staff are good and the reception is very pretty, but apart from that, this is not a place I would stay at again! It certainly does not deserve five stars, not even three! When you tried to complain, there was never anyone there with authority.

We booked a 'Double deluxe' room at the Romano Palace for 2 weeks in late spring 2007. I cannot overstate our disappointment, particularly at the size of the rooms. You get more space in most standard rooms in any hotel elsewhere in the world. The wardrobe was too small for 2 people for 1 week let alone 2. There were no other drawers or storage facilities in the room. This is a 2 star hotel at most, not 5 star as claimed.

We were initially placed in room with view of the car park even though we were assured of a garden or pool view. We complained and were promptly move to a room with a pool view; well as near as they could manage as the view was obscured by plants and bushes in front of the patio area. You could see the pool if you stood up and stretched. The plants seem to provide a home for the mosquitoes.

The staff were nice enough, but everything felt begrudged. The in-room Internet facility is not advertised and you have to ask for an Ethernet cable. There were no robes or slippers until we requested them. We asked for drinks by the pool and were told this as not permitted.

The 24 hour room service is often little more than warm bread with some cheese or a selection of cheeses. During restaurant hours there was a far wider choice, but never any where near as much as the menu suggested. The food was very good, but expensive in comparison to the restaurants in Catania.

There are no parasols and the sunloungers have no cushions. This may not be a problem as they play (loudly) a single half hour CD of Euro pop for days on end through speakers round the pool. The same songs repeated every half hour! You will want to get away from the pool. The jacuzzi facility in the pool doesn't work.

The satellite TV has only 1 English language channel - BBC World. This is not what you want to watch on holiday.

We had a man cutting grass, right outside our room about 10 feet from where I had been sleeping, at about 0830 one morning. He soon stopped when I suggested it was a bit early.

The air conditioning only went down to 21 degrees and the (tiny) bathroom flooded every time we used the shower.

A lot of business meetings are held at the hotel and those attending are obviously more welcome than the hotel guests as they are provided with refreshments round the pool. The visitors are dressed for work and all seem to smoke. You really don't want creepy old blokes standing next to your lounger when you are trying to sunbathe. My wife felt so uncomfortable she put on a dress. They also leave a mess with spilt food and drink. The grounds are large and there are plenty of other places the visitors could have been located.

The rooms are opened with electronic keys which make a loud buzz every time someone enters their room. There is no sound insulation and this woke us up at all times of the night. You can also hear people speaking, using the toilet and engaging in many other activities in the rooms adjoining and above. The rooms upstairs are not carpeted so you hear every footstep.

Only a few of the staff speak English and this also goes for most of the locals in Catania. If this bothers you then go somewhere else, I found it great fun - trying to use a combination of English, Italian, French and Latin!

The surrounding area features a number of signs stating it is a military zone. It looks like Beirut after a visit from the Israeli Air Force. The nearby park appears to be a sanctuary for a pack of stray dogs and it is littered with rubbish, dog mess and nettles. The public beach was littered with glass and dog mess, we didn’t use the hotel’s beach.

This was the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in a developed country.