Hotel Mar & Sol

This hotel was my favorite place on our trip. Not because it's luxurious (it isn't), but because of the gorgeous beach location. The town is famous for being one of the locations where the popular "Inspector Montalbano" TV series is filmed. You need a car to get here. The hotel is right on the beach. The manager, Orazio, is very friendly and helpful. We had a beach-facing room with a lovely balcony where we could just sit and enjoy the view (and dry our laundry). We were there in May, which was apparently the off-season, so the water was a little chilly, but still swimmable. We were almost the only guests at the hotel, and there was hardly anyone on the beach. The hotel gave us beach chairs, but bring your own beach towel. It's a windy place, and we enjoyed watching the kite surfers do amazing acrobatics out in the water. The hotel breakfast was good, and we sat in a lovely patio next to the beach. Clearly, this place gets a lot more crowded in the summer, since there were plenty more tables in the breakfast area. For dinner, we drove a couple of kilometers into town and had two of the best dinners of our entire trip at Enzo al Mare. This hotel was the most relaxing place we stayed on our 5-week trip, and one of our favorites.