HOTEL: The Antonella is mix of good and not so good. We paid for a lake view balcony and weren’t disappointed, although we would have been if we had paid for just a balcony as these are at the rear and face a wall about 15 feet away. However there is a trade-off: the front has the views but the main road is directly in front, and like other reviewers have noted, traffic noise is intrusive and incessant, and even closing the balcony door only muffles it slightly. It is apparently much quieter at the back, so choose wisely (although to be fair to the Antonella, this must be the case with the majority of the outlying hotels as most are on/close to the road). However there is a barely used sun terrace with fab views if you forego the balcony altogether.
The rooms are small and clean, but walls are thin, though luckily Newmarket doesn’t cater for the 18-30 set. The bathroom is small but the shower is powerful with plenty of hot water. The downside was the hairdryer: to put it politely my grandmother could break wind with more gusto, so unless you only have an inch of hair needing a quick ruffle, bring your own hairdryer. The pillows are heavy and hard and I didn’t find them comfortable.
The room has a programme-your-own-code safe (5 Euros p/w), but please remember to leave the door open when you leave to save the next occupant from having to run downstairs for instructions on how to override it. Our room also had a power cut: if this happens to you flick the key in the unit by the door frame to restore power. The hall has lots of angles which I mention as the lights are on a timer and as light doesn’t travel well around corners you can find yourself in total blackout if not careful. My advice is to flick a light switch anyway (the black units by the door frames) which should give you time to reach your room. If you are at the furthest end from the lift as we were, the switch for this end is at the top of the stairs.
Surprise, surprise, satellite TV has 1 English-speaking channel – BBC News 24. However there are numerous German & Italian film channels if you speak the lingo. We did submit to Jurassic Park dubbed into German one afternoon whilst drying out after a thorough drenching, but an English entertainment channel would be nice: hotel owners please take note.
Instructions say there is no smoking in the rooms / grounds, but there are plenty of ashtrays outside. Now I know smoking is a pleasure to some, but please remember we non-smokers have paid for a holiday too, and sitting downwind of someone else’s fug is akin to the middle stages of sea sickness – truly horrible. This is a problem on the balcony also, as next door’s smoke even drifted into the rooms.
The hotel is family owned and they are friendly, though only the younger guy seems to speak (limited) English - which is fair enough as we were in Italy - as I found out when asked a question about the ferry or tried to tell him a colony of ants was marching up my bed. Flipper the golden Labrador is lovely, and becomes very animated should you leave the breakfast room with a piece of ham in your hand!
This brings me to food: about 70/30 against in our and many other opinions. Breakfast is an adequate if limited array of cereal, toast, slices of cheese or ham, plain yoghurt and a few pieces of cake (many I suspect recycled from the previous evening’s dessert). A dozen or so croissants appeared 2 mornings and were gone in a flash. Also hot drinks or orange/grapefruit juice (squash). Evening meals are by waitress service, and each starts with an limited self service salad. The first evening we were presented with beef lasagne. From then on you are given a menu to select from for the next evening, but beware if you are a vegetarian: if you eat fish you may scrape by, but if you don’t prepare to bulk up on salad. Typical choices are: first course a dish of plain yoghurt, soup, or meaty pasta dish; second course meat or fish dish - or on 2 evenings an omelette (actually a burnt and tasteless pancake rolled up with a sliced tomato down the centre); dessert = cake, fruit or a very disappointing ice cream (come on – this is Italy!). Very few vegetables were served and most things we saw/ate appeared to come straight from a tin or jar. If plain food is your thing you might be OK; if you expect better you may find yourself looking for alternatives. However there is a giant EuroSpar down the road which we made use of. I can sum up the hotel by quoting a fellow guest – it was more like a Torquay boarding house and not what we expected for the price of the holiday.
GENERAL: If you are disabled you may find access to and from the centre a challenge as turning left from the hotel takes you along an uneven pebble path. After 100 yards or so you reach a zebra crossing: from here either go down the steps to the lakeside walk, or turn right down the slip road for a quieter walk into town. Turn right and for 100 yards or so the ‘pavement’ is an extension of the road, and narrows down to less than the width of a wheelchair in parts. Oh and when it rains it is several inches deep in water, and whilst most of the cars were considerate enough to slow down and drive closer to the centre of the road, a number sped up and absolutely drenched us (see Jurassic Park, above) - a real YBF moment; just shame I didn’t film it!
MALCESINE: The lakeside walk is very pretty; Malcesine is easy on the eye and large enough to keep you interested; the castle also houses lots of British weddings. Monte Baldo is worth doing, but get there before 10.00 when the coach parties arrive or you will be in an hour-long queue. Also time your descent well: a fellow guest left this until late afternoon and it took 1.5 hours to get down. (It is a 4 hr walk if thinking of descending by foot.) On a clear day the views are stunning and the clean cool air is a treat. It is also a magnet for cyclists, hikers and parascenders. Ferry tickets can be bought at the jetty point up to 20 minutes before departure, but you may not use, say, a Malcesine - Riva ticket to hop off and back on at Limone: for this you must buy a ‘hopper’ ticket.
VERONA: would like to spend a few days here as the shopping looks fab – if you are thin enough and rich enough. I also couldn’t wait to get inside the amphitheatre (again arrive early), but whilst it looked great on the outside, what a disappointment inside! Virtually all covered in permanent plastic seating, much of it bright red. Absolutely NO atmosphere, unlike Rome. Juliet’s balcony is in a small courtyard through a much graffitti’d entrance tunnel. We got there early but still packed solid. Must also mention the public loos here: the ones in the main square are underground (descend by stairs, or open air lift like something out of Dr Who), and are actually quite beautiful. They are made from carved white marble and dark wood doors - but once in the cubicle they are the hole-in-the-floor variety, so be warned.
NEWMARKET / THE REP / VIKING: Coach excursions routinely depart from the bus station just past the Eurospar, so allow 10 mins to get there (only arrivals/departures stop outside the hotel). The rep (I won’t mention names) practically route-marched the group away to Juliet’s balcony, and again back to the coach, and made no concession for the elderly/less abled at the back who grew more distant every few steps. Apparently this was common to all the trips she led. Neither was there a Newmarket notice board or resort book at the hotel (use Thomson’s), and the 20 minute welcome meeting/coach tour aside we never saw her again. The seat pitch with Viking is absolutely awful, the worst I’ve experienced. Being very tall my knees were crushed up against the seat in front (painfully so), made worse when the person in front tried to put back their seat – why do manufacturers allow this in cattle class?? We flew with Newmarket because they fly from Bournemouth, but I’ve been to Italy with better operators, though sadly their nearest airport to us is London, adding 3 hours each way. Tour operators please take note London is NOT the centre of the universe, and I resent having to travel there, almost always at stupid o’clock, to go somewhere other than Malaga or Tenerife. I know there is a market as every flight I take from here is full up.
All in all we enjoyed the holiday, despite 2 days torrential rain (bring a proper waterproof!), and the hotel was OK, but a little pricey for the experience. Food was disappointing, and whilst the walk to the centre wasn’t excessive it could be difficult for the less abled.
