Palazzo Natoli Boutique Hotel

Pros +

• Excellent range of breakfast foods and quantities; very friendly and helpful staff; historic and central rooms stylishly modernised
• Palazzo Natoli is an absolute gem of a hotel. The entrance is located on a small side street/alley, but our balcony hovered over a bustling street in Palermo's historic district. From the moment we arrived--at night, in the middle of a brief power outage in the city!--we were welcomed and treated like family members. Andrea was manning the front desk that night, and he immediately helped us get our bearings, offering us refreshments and a map on which he had personally noted several nearby things--cafs, cathedrals, parks, good restaurants--we might enjoy. He called in a reservation for us at a wonderful trattoria and talked them into staying open for us so we could freshen up once the lights came on. For the ten days we were fortunate to stay at Palazzo Natoli, we were consistently impressed with the professionalism, thoughtfulness, and friendliness of the staff, including Francesca, Nini, and Andrea. Our room was lovely--sparkling clean, very comfortable and light-filled--and the morning breakfast in the hotel caf was an absolute highlight, too: home-made pastries; local cheeses; eggs however you like them; delicious caponata; orange juice that had been squeezed just minutes ago; the perfect cappuccino. We cannot wait to go back!

Cons -

• Only one small wish: for slightly hotter hot water.
• I cannot think of a thing I would change. Maybe offer down pillows for the fussy sleeper? Really, though, Palazzo Natoli was flawless, just wonderful.