Via Umberto 470,
98035 Giardini Naxos, Sicily - Italy.
Tel: (+39) 0942 52267, Fax: (+39) 0942 551329
E-mail: palladio@tao.it

The hotel is a small family place obtained from the renovation of the big family house, built at the beginning of the‘900: harmoniously decorated, we added modern comforts although we wanted to keep furniture and atmosphere of its past.

Position

Right opposite the hotel you will see on the left a small free beach and on the right two private and equipped lidi with restaurant.

We are at a very good starting point for excursions towards all the Sicilian territory: 3km from Taormina, 14km from the Alcantara Gorges, 40km. from Etna. We are 1km both from the highway exit here in Giardini Naxos and from the railway station.

Besides right opposite the hotel there are the stops for the buses that go to the railway station and than proceed up to Taormina (they pass every 20 min.). Also at the same place  stop the private buses going for daily excursions to the main Sicilian tourist places: Etna, Alcantara Gorges, Siracusa, Agrigento, Palermo, Monreale, Piazza Armerina, Caltagirone,  Eolie Islands. You can book these guided tours directly at the hotel, asking the girls at reception – the guides for the excursions speak various languages.

In the solarium on the fifth floor there are the deck chairs where you can sunbathe and a big shower made with lava stone with both hot and cold water.

In this territory, maybe more than anywhere else, cohabit, overlying and interlaced, the Greek Sicily, the Arab-Norman and the baroque one and then again the tourist Sicily coexists side by side with folk Sicily at times still ancient, absorbed in a still unscathed nature. Giardini Naxos together with Taormina (3km from us) is part of that Sicily most celebrated for its amazing landscape, the wonderful beaches and the night life, but we are also an important archaeological site, seat of the first Greek colony in Sicily, and we are in a quite good position:  just a few kilometres from Etna and the Riviera of the Cyclops, and at the crossroad of  ancient roads that lead to the valley of Alcantara and Agrò, and at the intersection of the two main Sicilian highways: Messina-Palermo which runs along the coast of the Tirreno and Catania-Palermo which takes the inside road instead. Giardini Naxos is 43 km. from Messina (both Taormina and Giardini are in the province of Messina), 53 km. from Catania, 111km. from Siracusa, 150 km. from Enna, 157 km. from Ragusa, 179 km. from Caltanissetta, 245 km. from Agrigento, 302 km. from Palermo, 394 km. from Trapani.

How to reach us

Services

The hotel has got a salon with a small library and a veranda overlooking the sea where we serve breakfast. Up on the fourth floor there is the bar on the panoramic terrace. On the fifth floor solarium with a shower made with lava rock.

For breakfast we offer natural local food: home –baked Sicilian cakes, salamis and local cheese, different kinds of biological marmalade and jam coming from the cooperatives who farm the lands that the Government has confiscated to the mafia, fresh fruit, yogurt, bread, croissants. Tea, barley, chocolate and muesli are products of the fair trade.

From April till September, up on the terrace on the fourth floor it is open the bar where we serve our specialties and in the evening we have an aperitif with a buffet of “focaccia”, “arancini” and other local recipes, Sicilian vines and cocktails made with fresh squeezed tangerines and red oranges, almond milk and fresh fruit juice.

From April till September our bar serves variations of dishes of the Sicilian and Arab tradition. Sicilian specialties with fish (smoked sword-fish, octopus carpaccio etc.) and vegetables cooked following the traditional recipes. We cook old style: we only use fresh ingredients and of course fresh fishes. For lunch or dinner our guests may also choose to go various good restaurants close to the hotel; some of them offer typical menus.

Activities

Tours to all the Sicilian territory with multilingual guides can be arranged and booked at reception and the bus will come pick you up right in front of the hotel or if you wish to go on your own we shall provide all information, train schedules, bus timetables to help you organize your excursions in the surrounding territory.

We organize excursions on a boat to visit the coast and Isola Bella from the sea, half day excursions to go fishing, which includes the professional equipment. We can also contact the local school of diving to organize diving tours or lessons to have a “diving licence” at the end of the course. In our beaches there are upright cliffs with caves and creeks perfect for diving. You can go snorkeling and explore a nice scenery rich with submarine flora and fauna but also places of archaeological interest as the one where you can find the Greek columns sank with the ship that transported them.

• Bar

• Solarium, lift, parking.

• Free Internet service to check and send your e-mail;

• Fax service;

• Telephone wake-up call;

• Safety box at reception;

• Baby sitter (requested in advance);

• Physiotherapist (requested in advance);

• Luggage store;

• Laundry service in the morning (under payment);

• Car space booked in advance (under payment);

• Parking service, the client will be taken to the private parking and back;

• Car, scooters and bicycle rent;

• Taxi call;

• Booking of private, guided excursions (Italian, English, German, French) on buses to Agrigento, Etna Sunset, Etna, Etna round Alcantara, Lipari - Vulcano, Palermo - Monreale, Piazza Armerina-Caltagirone, Etna – Randazzo - Valley of Alcantara, Siracusa, Panarea - Stromboli;

• Booking of excursions on the boat to Isola Bella and Grotta Azzurra;

• Booking of tennis fields, golf fields and diving;

• Booking for restaurants;

• Information and booking for shows.