Hotel Archimede Ortigia in Syracuse

We had many issues with this hotel. The hotel is not in Ortiga - old town- it is in an unattractive area in Syracuse near the train station with rubbish everywhere. There was also a hostel opposite us which was noisy all night. The walls in the hotel room were paper thin- say no more. The place stank of cigarette smoke- one of the hotel staff was constantly smoking outside at the front door which then filtered up into the rooms and air conditioner system. The toilet did not work in our room and they said they fixed it but an hour later it didn’t flush again so we had to move our belongs up 2 more flights of stairs to another room. The bidet in the first bathroom was so close to the shower that we had to squeeze past it to get into the shower. There was nowhere to hang the towels - we had to drape them over chairs and they didn’t dry. When we asked for more towels we were told we could only have new ones every 3 days. Therefore we were drying ourselves with wet towels most of the time. The owner’s answer when I complained was that this was only a 3 star hotel. This was the worst hotel we have stayed in whilst in Europe and we are pretty easy going. There are a few more issues that I won’t mention here - I’ve already said enough. I will however mention that the young boy (Alex) working there was really helpful and understanding of the situation. As there was no kettle in our room he climbed many flights of stairs each day (there is no elevator) to bring us hot water for drinks. He also helped us with our luggage when we had to move rooms. He was the only bright light that made it bearable there.

Terrible hotel, dirty, full of dust, unkempt rooms, lack of hygiene, the bathroom indescribable, the bottle dispenser dirty and broken, the bathroom extractor extremely dirty and broken, I complained to the hotel management, to fix the shower and clean the room... they were rude and unkind, telling me that I'm used to a 5-star hotel... I'm used to hygiene and cleanliness, not to the stars of the hotel, there you have the situation, I didn't try breakfast even if it was included in the price already paid.