Locanda Don Serafino

Cosy-chic little hotel attached to one of Sicily’s best restaurants, in the breathtaking Baroque town of Ragusa Ibla

This is the kind of place where people in the know come: those who pore over food and travel magazines. Opened in 2004 to provide comfortable accommodation for clients of their restaurant nearby, it's housed in a row of carefully restored Baroque cottages, with the reception and sitting area tucked under exposed limestone vaults and paved with chocolate-brown pietra pece (a kind of limestone suffused with petroleum).

Don Serafino sings the city’s story. Ibla, like the rest of the towns in the area, was flattened by an earthquake in 1693, and rebuilt using stones from the rubble. At Don Serafino 2 of the rooms occupy the stables which, carved directly into the rock, survived the earthquake; others feature a Gothic arch or a 15th-century portal salvaged from town walls. With 10 cosy rooms, no outdoor space, mouth-watering dinners and service that is efficient rather than inspired, this is a hotel for couples devoted to food and culture; and an excellent base for exploring this breathtaking Unesco-listed town.

Highs

• The breakfast: a choice of 5 homemade cakes, plus mini cannoli and 4 varieties of local honey
• The cave-like rooms: no. 8’s bathroom has a blue-tiled tub in a cave of bare rock, no. 10 has two medieval portals
• Ragusa Ibla itself: perched on a hill above 2 deep valleys, with a wonderfully Baroque cathedral, two Michelin-starred restaurants and a handsome, theatrical air

Lows

• Service can be rather cool, and cleaning a little lax
• Furniture upholstered in cream is not the most practical choice in windy, dusty southern Sicily
• The bedrooms built straight into the rock can be very damp; some others are very small
• Lots of steep winding stairs and low ceilings (and no lift)