Villa Madau - Pula, Italy     

This is quite a good hotel in a fantastic area of sardegna. I was a little concerned that it still had a room available at the last minute in the middle of august, but its a great comfortable 3 star hotel right in the middle of Pula. The room was clean and airy with four windows and 2 (narrow) balconies looking over a beautiful piazza with a direct view onto the chiesa (and gelateria), a good bathroom and cable tv (sky italia) with several channels in english and other languages. Pula in general is a great little town which is totally asleep during the day and bustling with activity around dinner time - it is also a relatively short drive to the beautiful chia bay. The staff were very friendly and helpful, and the breakfast was quite good (no hot food but a good selection of pastries, fruit, yoghurt etc). My only complaint was that due to the noise from the piazza (which one night went on until dawn) it was necessary to sleep with the windows closed and the aircon on - something I hate, particularly on beautiful hot summer nights. Also, I navigated to the hotel with a gps system which didnt realise that via nora was divided in half by a piazza so spent 15 minutes on foot looking for the hotel - in fact, it is directly across from the church!