Le Oreadi — Hotel in Francavilla di Sicilia

First I hate to write anything but a positive review, especially when I know there are hard working people making an effort to run a good hotel. I think I could only recommend this place if you fully understand what you're getting. Otherwise, I would not stay here again. First the drive to the property is an adventure. Once you turn off the road onto the small "road" that leads to the property it's really a dirt/rock road, with lots of sketchy tight rock areas and we were relieved we didn't damage our rental car going in and out of there. It was very much off roading and also pretty tricky to follow when you are first arriving. Flimsy handmade signs attempt to lead the way, but the "road" is really rustic (and we are very familiar with dirt roads in Italy). The reception was very bland, both in terms of the lobby itself and the staff who greeted us. I felt like we were checking in to a hospital. We had two rooms on the first floor in the main building just above the reception directly above the main dining room. Rooms are very basic. Nice enough with everything you need, but quite simple almost to the point of feeling like a hostel. There were a couple of strange holes in the walls where pipes fed through, and there was even a tissue sticking out of one of the pipes just above my daughter's bed. That was just weird. The bathroom window was waist level with the neighbour's patio, and the glass was too transparent. There was no curtain, so I had to create one with a towel. The shower curtain was very dirty, lots of mildew collected on the bottom of it. The worst part of our stay was the noise. The heavy wooden chairs used in the dining room below these rooms scrape so loudly that you can hear it very loudly in the rooms above. This went on each night late until dinner was over and started in the morning when breakfast began. It was nonstop movement of loud scraping chairs. So aggravating. Additionally there was a party hosted here on our last night that went quite late, and children from the party were running through the lobby and into the stairwell shouting and screaming. The positive points would include: pretty good internet, nice breakfast staff, some nice views and good sized pool. The hosts seemed very lovely and hard working, and I really hate leaving a less than positive review, but this place was not good for us. Perhaps if we had been in one of the rooms outside of the main building it would have been a better...

ROAD: Our first disappointment came with the road leading to the Agriturismo .. after leaving the main road we had to drive for another 5 minutes on a very narrow country road - and with our 9 seater van it was a really hard adventure driving through! Half of the road is badly unsurfaced and with no lights at all during the night.||||POOL: The pool area is nice but it needs a bit of maintenance .. no umbrellas to cater for all the sunbeds available .. luckily we found a bit of shade underneath an olive tree!||||DINNER: On our first evening there we had dinner .. we had two options for our starter: tomato sauce or pistachio .. pasta, both dishes were nice. Main course was just local traditional sausage and salad. As a desert we were offered either whole peaches or water melon. We were charged €20 for the adults and €10 for the children .. for a better choice, paid really a cheaper price at the local restaurant downtown!||||BREAKFAST: 1 type of cereal, fresh bread, toasted bread in packets, salami, cheese, butter, jams, cake, biscuits, fresh melon, yogurts, coffee, tea and milk. They did us scrambled eggs as well. Quite varied, fresh and good.||||ROOMS: Rooms were found all clean and tidy. Linen and towels were all white and clean. We stayed for 7 nights and on the website we read that towels would be changed after 3 days, but they weren't, so we ended having to ask so that they are changed!||||Another negative point is that although the rooms are equipped with a small fridge, once you go out and you take the key from the socket all the lights turn off including the fridge! So there is no use of having a fridge in the room and turning it off each and every time you leave the room! An added bonus is the air-conditioning which is really good! And also the powerful shower which is to die for! ||Also no spare toilet paper is left in the bathroom .. you have to ask for it .. even though they do the rooms every day!||||Location is excellent to visit from Mount Etna to the Nebrodi mountains, from Enna to Savoca, Montalbano Eliconi and even Sicilia Village and Etnaland.||||All in all we had quite an enjoyable stay at the Le Oreadi .. considering also the good price we paid and how helpful they...

The road to this hotel is already a warning sign. You have to cross a dried out river past a whole lot of rocks before you arrive at the premises, not ideal to do when driving a rental. We were greeted by the wife of the owner, who couldn't speak a single word of English. I don't really mind when we're not able to understand each other fully, but I really hate not even trying to make it work when it's clear we won't get further than 'bongiorno'. How can you have a hotel for so many years and not understand the most basic of English (or even Spanish?). Anyway, we enter our room not feeling all that welcome and notice the rooms aren't in their best shape either. I even got the impression that the room hadn't even been properly finished, I can't explain why there are random tubes coming out of the wall. Not to mention the cleaning wasn't done properly either, we found an empty shampoo thingy in the shower and a glass with sigarette buds on the terrace. The dinner was good, only thing that bothered me was that there were no wine glasses. Another thing that annoyed me, albeit it mildly, was that there was a couple that got dessert while the rest of the customers did not. I suppose it was family, but at least try to keep it hidden. On to another pressing matter: the noise. It's true that you can't hear the cars, but it feels like there is no soundproofing at all in the building. Whether it's the dog constantly barking, customers taking dinner or the children playing football, you'll be able to hear it all in full glory. So except for the stunning view and area, I wouldn't recommend...