Granitola Torretta Holidays from £168

Our trip in late August was accompanied by a heat wave. The AC was weak, and couldn't cool down the room below 28 degrees C with high humidity. Due to how sewage was engineered, toilet paper needed to be thrown into the bin, and even then, using any water produced a foul smell. Lastly, our check in was anything but pleasant. After running to make it before 10 PM, the door was closed and the ghost unresponsive, despite us calling ahead and announcing that we will be right before 10PM. We entered with other guests, but the host for back only in 2.5h. Overheated, waited outside, useless AC, smelly room, sleepless night. Only get this is you really want to be next to the central cathedral. There are better places otherwise.

The staff was amazing and very helpful. They moved our room after our first night because the people in the room above us were so loud we could hear everything. The rooms are nice but have some drawbacks: in order to have your windows open to get fresh air at night, the room is flooded with all the uplighting surrounding the hotel. The windows have wooden shutters inside which means in order to block out the light, you must close the windows and then close the wooden shutters. Either turn off the floodlights at night or provide some curtains. The walls are also very thin and you can hear everything in the room next to you. We couldn’t get any of the TV apps to work so only had access to Italian TV. Did a fun (but very long) cooking class. The pool area is interesting but not inviting. It’s in a corner in the main area of the courtyard and faces 2 walls so there is no view. Also not very private. There is no lobby bar or any soft seating to relax anywhere. There is also not a set restaurant at the hotel - you have to do a cooking class or a private chef cooking for you (which would be nice but it’s in the cooking class/breakfast room so you have to experience it while a class is going on beside you). It’s a very pretty hotel but not really designed for the best experience for guests.

The Arche Design Rooms and Suites was a good choice for us. We found it comfortable and convenient with good food choices nearby. The recommendations by the team for where to eat were so helpful and we felt really welcomed. We didn’t use the Spa so can’t comment. Our late arrival was no problem and we enjoyed the breakfasts - all the food was fresh and tasty. We enjoyed our stay and would certainly recommend Arche to other travellers

Lovely pool and peaceful.