Прекрасная Сицилия Beautiful Sicily

We went with my wife for a week, from the first days of August 2009.
The hotel is a full-fledged 3 *, but with minor restrictions, which will be discussed later.
The hotel is small, cozy and, most importantly, stands between residential buildings in the town, and is not assigned to a separate resort area. This gives the rest a unique feeling, because you, in fact, live among the locals, walk the streets with them, communicate (surprisingly, everything is very simple, you need to remember a little the most famous Italian words, or, in extreme cases, use English, but it not everyone knows), go to the same shops, sit in the same cafes and restaurants. Sicilians are very sociable and friendly. A rather uncomplexed people, who, however, do not forget about mutual respect and tact. The only thing that is unpleasant is that they are not very "clean", they throw garbage anywhere, and not in baskets.

In the hotel, and in Sicily, not only foreigners rest, but also many Italians from mainland Italy, some of them have houses or apartments on the island.
Rooms at the hotel are small, decorated with light tiles and white wallpaper. The furniture in the room is also white, and therefore some people get the feeling that they are in a hospital room. The bath is small, with red tiles on the floor, but has all the necessary sanitary facilities (sink, toilet, bidet, bath) + hair dryer. The room is cleaned every day, linen is changed every 2-3 days.
There is a TV, but it only catches terrestrial television with a dozen channels, including Italian MTV. The TV signal is not very stable and half of the channels either appear or disappear. Those who want to know the news from Russia should go down to the hotel lobby to a large TV with a satellite receiver and tune in to channel 39 - VESTI. This is the only (!!! ) of the Russian-language channels, in the entire range of the "plate". There are no channels in Ukrainian or Belarusian at all.
There is no refrigerator in the room, but you can ask for one for an additional fee (5 euros per day).
There is no pool in the hotel, because. the hotel is small and has the shape of the letter G, so in the narrow courtyard there is a staircase from the 0th floor (reception and restaurant) and 4 tables with chairs and umbrellas. Exit from the hotel square directly onto the street with a small parking lot (for 5 cars).
The entrance to the beach is 5-10 meters from the hotel, i. e. you have to cross a narrow street, with one-way traffic of small vehicles, and a small embankment sidewalk. The beach belongs to the hotel, sun loungers and umbrellas on the beach are FREE for hotel guests, which is important, because. the cost of 2 sun loungers and an umbrella per day is 15 euros.
The Ionian Sea is very clean and very salty, when diving, the nose starts to burn from the salt, so it is better not to dive or at least pinch your nose.

They say that there are days when jellyfish come to the shore, but out of 8 days of our vacation, this happened once and their number was minimal, I didn’t see them at all. Although 2-3 Russians, and only Russians, were stung by jellyfish. Why Russians in particular - because the Italians, as soon as they hear from the lifeguard that there are jellyfish near the shore, do not enter the water, and ours do not care about everything. The burn is quite unpleasant, it burns and becomes, after a while, dark brown, because. the place of the burn ceases to be protected from the sun. It goes away in six months or a year. On the beach, the lifeguard of our hotel had a remedy for a bite, and if you immediately approach him and say "Medusa", then he poured the remedy on the burn site and the consequences were weaker. But some did not know this and the consequences were serious, up to going to the doctor.
Now about the restrictions, they relate to nutrition.
Firstly, the breakfast is rather meager and is a buffet, which has: three types of cold cuts + cheese, white bread, croutons, cookies, butter, jam, corn flakes, drinking yogurt + milk + tea + coffee - and that's absolutely everything! A rather meager choice, no scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs for you, no cereals and other delights. But it’s quite possible to eat, and you won’t overdo it with calories, which is also a plus!
The second is dinner, for which you order dishes during breakfast, marking on your table survey sheet, quite varied and consists of three courses - an appetizer to choose from 3 items (always pasta and soup, and something else), main course a choice of 2-3 items (usually meat and fish, and something else) and dessert or fruit. Whoever wants to eat, let him take more pasta, because. the main course is either large or very small (such as thin slices of 3 pieces of some meat product). Drinks are ordered during dinner and they are paid, payment upon departure from the hotel.
The restaurant has 2 male waiters and 2 waitresses, very friendly and always ready to help.
Now about cultural rest and shopping. For Russian tourists staying at this hotel, there are 2 free tours from the tour operator in Messina and Catania. They pass in one day and one after another, with a short break and check-in at the hotel. It is worth seeing both cities and listening to the guide, because. cities are diverse, with different architecture and history. There is practically no time left for shopping in these cities.

The nearest large town to the hotel is Taormina. This is a famous tourist and historical center, which has a narrow street with a series of different shops. This street has the most expensive prices in Sicily!! ! It makes sense to buy only souvenirs there (ceramics, magnets, T-shirts, T-shirts, baseball caps, etc. ). Souvenir prices are quite reasonable. We went to the town almost every day between sunbathing on the beach (from 12 to 15 hours). It takes 10-15 minutes to drive with stops, it costs 1.5 euros one way, but it's better to take a round-trip ticket - it costs 2.5 euros (instead of 3 euros). The bus stop is on the street behind the hotel, right next to the hotel exit. The bus runs on average once every 1 hour, in August a little more often.
Now about shopping. Shopping makes sense to do in the town of Misterbianco near Catania, located on the road to the airport. To do this, you will need to rent a car. There are many discount stores of various famous brands (Benetton, Bugatti, H&M, etc. ).
Liquor wines and local orange honey are the cheapest to buy at the Spar shop, which is located 400 meters from the hotel, along the street behind the hotel. There are the cheapest prices. For example, a bottle of good local wine costs 6 euros (against 9 euros in Duty Free), Martini or Cinzano champagne costs 5-7 euros.
And finally, about Wimm Airlines. We liked the company, no delays or failures. Air conditioning is always on in the plane, even when parked. Boeing 757-200 aircraft, clean and tidy. The staff is friendly.
We liked Sicily more than Spain, although in Spain we were in a 4 + * hotel.