We stayed in Catania for three nights. I undertook a little research of Catania before booking the hotel for three nights. We were travelling around the island for one week and planned to use Catania as a base to visit Taormina and Siracusa. In hindsight it would have been better if we had stayed a night each in those towns because they were great. Catania is an industrial town and we only spent four hours in the city one evening and it was rather disappointing to say the least. The hotel is located 15 minutes by taxi from The city centre. The website advertises the hotel as a luxury get-away:

"At the Romano Palace Luxury Hotel & Conference Center – the first five-star luxury hotel in Catania, inaugurated in 2004 in a fantastic setting along the seaside, surrounded by a private park of 25,000 square meters – you will quickly slip into a state of complete relaxation thanks to the sea view and the large swimming pool with whirlpool and massage jets.This is an enchanting oasis found snug between the city’s Baroque architecture and the sea, with Mt. Etna towering above it all."

However, I would consider it to be a standard hotel. The photographs on the website do make the hotel appear more luxurious. The hotel claims to have a private beach for quests, in reality this is only open during the summer months and we were especially looking forward to sitting on the beach. The hotel is located on the main road along the coast. Once inside then gated entrance it was calm and tranquil. There is a swimming pool at the hotel but it is not heated and a restaurant. Our room was nice and we had a balcony overlooking he gardens. Breakfast was good with a large selection of Italian pastries, meats, cheeses, cakes, eggs, bread.... and it certainly set us up for the day. We ate in the hotel restaurant one of the evenings and the food was of a good standard but it was a little too formal. The hotel is fine if you are visiting Catania and a professional Italian football team were also staying at the hotel the night before their match with Catania. If you are in Catania on business the the hotel is fine and there is free wifi. If you choose to stay in Catania and use it as a base as we did, it would be better staying in the prettier towns 40 minutes drive north or south.