The location of the Hotel Roma is superb. It is around the corner from the main piazza in the oldest part of the city. The hotel is clean and the room are generous by standards in Italy. We found the service to be very good from the front desk. The ony disappointment was breakfast. Siracusa is surrounded by orange and lemon groves yet the juice served was made from crystals. There were fresh and sumptuous ranges to peel and eat. Would an orange juicer be too much to ask? Breakfast service was also poor. Overall, it is a hotel I would highly recommend but skip eating in for breakfast. Enjoy one of the many places nearby.

We ended up staying here more or less by accident as the self-catering option we had booked outside Syracuse had two bedrooms less than the website said. We booked the Roma as the first suitable option we found, and it couldn't have been better. The location is perfect, right in the centre of the old town of Ortigia and next to the cathedral. The food was very good. The rooms were great: clean, reasonably spacious and well equipped - in particular the junior suite which enabled our youngest children to sleep in a room next to ours with a large and safe roof garden. Best of all were the staff, who were all charming and could not have tried harder to make our stay as pleasant as possible.

I have stayed at this hotel twice. Once in the fall of 2011, to vet it for a conference, and again in January 2012 to hold the conference. I have been taking groups of Americans overseas for 15 years for cultural/educational conferences that combine charming places to stay, lectures on on literature and history, and guided sightseeing. Of the many hotels that I have worked with in Europe, this is my favorite. The staff is superb and most friendly. Gabriella Salvi, who helped me with the details of my conference prior to and during the event is the single most helpful and friendliest Guest Relations Manager I have worked with in 20 years of hosting conferences in the United States and abroad. The Hotel Roma is extremely fortunate to have her on staff. Also marvelous at the front desk are Iris and Sophia and a gentleman whose name I cannot recall.

The service at the bar is first rate, and the local wine prices are very good. You can get a bottle of a good crisp white from the bar for 13 Euros, which is very fair for a hotel. The Restaurant is solid. Other good places to eat in Ortigia include il Blu and Sicilia in Tavola.

The breakfast at the Hotel Roma is as good as as any I have had in Italy. Plenty of fresh fruit (blood oranges!) and cheese and meat and pastries. There is yogurt and muesli there and other cereals as well, contrary to a previous review. What I appreciated most about the breakfast was the speedy coffee service in the morning courtesy of Alessandro. Actually there are two Alessandros at the bar and they are both a delight. As an American, I admit that I like to have a few cups of coffee first thing in the morning and they were always quick to get me "un alturo cappuccino."

The rooms are very clean. The cleaning staff is meticulous. I never had a problem with the shower or a lack of hot water. The beds are soft. Even the fold out mattress in one of the suites is very comfortable. The members of the group that I brought were universal in their praise of the hotel.

The meeting room is excellent and elegant, and the acoustics in the room are superb. For group of almost forty we did not need any amplification for our lectures. All the necessary items for a meeting are at hand: projector, screen, etc.

The lobby is a lovely place to have drinks and it includes a good piano, should you have a piano player in your group. We had (at least) two!

Gabriella was especially helpful in arranging bus excursions for us to Noto (a must see) and Taormina (see below) and restaurant suggestions. The front desk staff were very helpful with locating lost luggage. Everyone at the front desk was just a delightful person to talk to. They love their city and love to tell people about it. The hotel has a free luggage service to get your group's luggage to the Molo San Antonio where the motorcoaches park.

If you are going to Siracusa, first of all, stay on Ortigia. I understand the the Villa Politi is nice, but with the exception of the Catacombe Cappucini and the Acrcheological Park, all the loveliest sites in Siracusa are on Ortigia. It is the place to stay. Now, there are places on Ortigia that have views of the sea, but my opinion is that the Hotel Roma, which is right around the corner from Piazza Duomo is the absolute best location. It is quite literally right in the middle of things. I had a room overlooking the Via Roma with a nice balcony. I never had any problem with street noise.

I had the good fortune to visit with the General Manager, who is a very fine gentleman. I look forward very much to returning to Siracusa and to this superb hotel that is also a superb value. I am happy to be contacted through Tripadvisor for questions about the hotel Roma or Siracusa in general. Thank you, Hotel Roma, for making our conference such a success. It is the human touch that makes the difference and this hotel has it very much.

(Taormina, by the way--and this has nothing to do with the Hotel Roma, it was my idea to go there--is pretty overrated. The Roman Theater is a delight, especially with the view of the volcano, but other than that, this tourist trap is lined with overpriced mediocre restaurants and expensive shops. I suppose it's worth seeing once, but give me Ortigia, Agrigento, Modica, Noto, Enna, Erice, even Palermo, over Taormina any day! Mercifully I was there in January. I can't imagine what a zoo it must be in the high season. There are lovely churches there and some in our group found good food outside the city gates. If you are in Siracusa for a week, Noto and Modica are much better day trips, in my opinion.)

This hotel is amazing. Siracusa is a fantastic location and this hotel makes it even more worth visiting. The staff are helpful and go the extra mile to make sure all is organised even if it is not necessarily hotel related. The answer is never ‘no’, but ‘let me see what can be done!’ The rooms are large and very comfortable, modern and clean. The decor of the hotel is fantastic, respecting the classical features and the respectful location right next to the Duomo. Siracusa is the best location to visit some fo Sicily’s best sites. I would like to thank Hotel Roma for outdoing any other hotel I have stayed in in Sicily.