Palazzo Caracciolo

The staff at this hotel were lovely. Very friendly and helpful. However the hotel itself, while it was clean, was anything but relaxing. Events are held every night and the music is way too loud. Even closing the windows doesn’t work. For someone that is overstimulated by sounds, this was overwhelmingly out of control. The WiFi doesn’t work in the rooms making working impossible. The rooms were hot and the air didn’t work. The shower was tiny and difficult to use. While it is in a good location, definitely not worth it.

An interesting old building turned into a Hilton Hotel, but Hilton standards don't seem to have been included very much. It's on the edge of the Centro Storico but that means it's surrounded by a rather run-down area. There is a bus stop almost outside but no buses call there any more, and the nearest Metros are about 10-15 mins walk in either direction, and it took some time to find a shop which would sell us day bus/metro tickets. We did venture out on foot every night for dinner and though some of the narrow dark lanes were a bit scary and the cobbles a bit unpleasant, we reached our destinations without problems. Once or twice we decided to take a taxi back when it was late: there seems to be a fairly standard fare of 13 Euros for all trips around the old town. Reception staff were always helpful and gave us a larger room when we expressed doubts over the first one we were given, which was nice. This room was comfortable and well equipped. Anyone who can't manage stairs should note that there is a short flight up from the entrance to reception and more stairs down to get to main courtyard for breakfast. There may be a lift you can take instead, but we never managed to find it. Breakfasts were really rather poor, which didn't encourage us to try dinner in the hotel. In a country with oranges on trees all over the place it was surprising that the the orange juice on offer was only just drinkable - far from freshly squeezed, not even up to basic supermarket orange juice. Not much fresh fruit on offer either, and hot things were on offer but had stood in a set of pans for some time so one found rock-hard bacon and lukewarm egg. On several mornings some items ran out, even basic things like teaspoons, but it was hard to get them replenished. There were croissants and other pastries but the texture suggested they had previously been frozen. A pity when there are so many excellent patisseries around the city. We didn't starve but I can't say that any of the breakfasts were enjoyable.