Locanda Don Serafino Romantik Hotel - Ragusa, Italy 

Locanda Don Serafino in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily Date: May 2008 Reviewer: New York We paid the top rate and this is what we got--steep winding stairs with no elevator, dark room, and an unfriendly staff. Up a hard to find and extremely narrow street, Locanda Don Serafino has made an unsuccessful effort to transform itself into a modern upscale venue while maintaining its old world ambience. It has no elevator and the only access to the rooms in the main building is up a steep, narrow, curved staircase. For the physically fit it isn't a problem until you learn that the porter is not available until 11:00 AM and you're on your own at check out time. No problem, they'll direct you to an upper level door to the street where you'll find a self-service luggage cart. Just hope there aren't any cars coming up the street or that you don't lose your grip on the cart as the street slopes about 45 degrees. Our room (Number 6) also maintained its old world charm with access up 4 steps from the hallway and space for only one opened suitcase at a time. Our "junior suite" did have a second room up another, but narrower 4 steps where we could prop open our other suitcase on the couch that was in the middle of the room, adjacent to the bathtub. That's OK, the staff, with the exception of the porter who was only there when we arrived, made up for it all by being unfriendly and unhelpful.

Ragusa was the highlight of our trip to Sicily, and we very much enjoyed our stay at Locanda don Serafino. Judging from the prior reviews it sounds like perhaps there are a range of different-sized rooms, but we found our room to be quite spacious and had no complaints at all about the bathroom. We decided to skip dinner at the hotel's restaurant, however, due to the high prices, and we ended up finding a fabulous restaurant right in the middle of Ragusa called Ai Lumi Trattoria. I'd highly recommend that you stop for dinner there if you're staying in Ragusa. As a previous reviewer mentioned, this hotel would not be a good pick for elderly travelers or those with disabilities because of the steep, uneven stone staircase, but for anyone else I would highly recommend it.