An awkward 5km downhill from gorgeous, moutain-perched Taormina, the Cundari Inn Hotel is located in the dreary and difficult-to-locate village of Trappitello. Its bedrooms are plonked bizarrely over a car sales showroom; the bedroom windows, likewise, showroom-sized, which entailed the non-exhibitionists among us, with widows facing the road, in keeping the two layers of curtains firmly closed. We occupied three separate rooms, in two of which the heating failed to work. The bedroom walls proved to so thin that we could hear the blare of televisions, the murmur of conversations and even the drone of snoring - I kid you not - from adjoining rooms. But the most off-putting feature of all was the inescapable chemical-like aroma that persisted throughout our three-day stay. The staff were adorable, though. And nice little luxuries like linen towels in the bathrooms, mini-bar fridges in the bedrooms and a small swimming-pool on the roof seemed incongruous in a hotel that is... more