We were quite suprised by the location and the hotel because we had wanted to stay in Ravenna, but Marina di Romea is at least a 30 minutes drive to the City. None the less we're glad we stayed there because it was a different experience. The hotel itself is clean and charming, but dated in a very cool sort of Dean Martin Italian 1960's movie way! The staff were marvelously helpful, greeted us by name and responded very promptly to our emails and requests. They were very dog friendly and suggested dog walks and the only dog friendly beach in town. Our room was spacious with a little balcony and the bathroom was made out of the local gorgeous marble. The only problem we had was that most of the balconies overlooked the central pool which was kids' paradise during the day and rather noisy. Very nice tropical landscaping around the pool and rear dining area. One thing to beware of is that the entire hotel backs onto another rather large hotel and they seemed poised to renovate that which was a rather nasty old hulk. I don't think I 'd want to stay there while that was happening.

There is a small cafe in front of the hotel mostly for guests and children staggering home from a day at the beach. Thankfully the dining room was divided so the families with energetic children were at the back and adults near the front terrace. The food was very good. Breakfast was served by the pool.

Marina di Romea itself is a beach community, everyone wears swimming costumes all the time, lazily peddles around on bikes, (the hotel has some you can borrow) and spends almost all of the day at the beach toasting themselms into a good ripe case of melanoma. Certainly not the hippest place I've ever stayed in my life, mostly grandparents and grandchildren. The town is on a sandy spit; the beach (different clubs and cafes strung along the sand) on the ocean side; and a warm salt water lagoon on the inland side. We preferred walking through the pine barrens and along the lagoon watching the little fishing shacks with their fish nets spread out over the water. Good bird watching if you're interested.