Tropea is an incredibly charming and exotic town in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Many medieval towns in Italy are close to the ocean but few are so high and with such impressive sea views as Tropea - It is Calabria's absolute gem!
Residenza il Duomo is located on a small street in the city's cathedral. This palace dating from the 13th Century where the B & B has rooms on the top two floors, was recently completely renovated (2009). Unlike several other smaller hotels and guest houses in the south, the furnishing and fittings are of the best quality and taste. The only thing missing is a lift so you should be prepared for some stairs - because of this we do not recommend it to people with disabilities or families with small children. In the streets around you will find a nice selection of everything from cafes, restaurants and shops.
Read more about Residenza Il Duomo B&B
Residenza il Duomo offers a really nice and large roof terrace where breakfast is served as long as the weather permits. It is open to guests throughout the day there are views over the city's roofs, the sea and the hills behind Tropea. Moreover, there are also a reception desk (24 hours) and wi-fi. One can easily opt for this accommodation without the need of a car, when the city has everything to make a holiday complete including a fine sandy beach with crystal clear water. It can be quite hard to find parking in the streets around the B & B during the busy summer season and you are likely to have to pay to park in a car park near the historic centre.
The B & B's ten rooms are spacious and are all equipped with air conditioning, satellite TV, mini-bar and bathroom with toilet, shower and hairdryer. They are divided into two categories:
- Standard rooms are located on the top floor and characterized by sloping ceilings. Some have space for an extra bed. The view from the rooms themselves are not anything special, but then you have access to the beautiful communal terrace.
- Junior Suite rooms are located on both the hotel floors and are slightly larger. It also has slightly higher ceilings and the view is either of the cathedral or the nearby rooftops. These rooms have a small balcony.
"No, no, no, no and no," was the first, second and third thought that came to our minds when we arrived at this B&B.
But if we start the positives, the staff is incredibly service minded, and it is clean and nice, charming rooms, it's very central, air condition, excellent Wi-Fi. Breakfast on the roof terrace is Spartan, of course, but oh what a view!
Now for the negatives: The home is in the old part of town, where you're not allowed to drive your car, not even to drop off you luggage, and if you drive in anyway, your license plate will be photographed and you can then expect a big fine, when you come home (we made that mistake and came home to a fine costing thousands (DKK)). You have to park your car 600-1000m away from the home, and you have to walk that stretch in 35-40 degrees heat to get to your accommodation. After that, you have to walk up to a home on the 4th floor that doesn't have an elevator. Most rooms are also another floor up...
The rooms look good, but are very loud. You can hear everything your neighbour says. Late in evening (00:00) a disco nearby starts playing music to 3 am.... every night...
Tropea is dramatically placed on a cliff with a view out over the ocean. To get to the beach, you take the stairs, you can also rent sunbeds, but be careful with the beach clubs, who takes enormous amounts of money... 52 euro for 2 sunbeds and 1 parasol for one day!!!
When you are done bathing, you have to go back up the stairs (180+ steps) to the town, and then the stairs to your home. Now that I think about it, I haven't ever sweated as much as I have going between beach and home, and I have run marathons before.
Tropea is said to be one of Italy's towns with most restaurants, and that is probably right, but it feels like there is just a lot of mediocre places and a few good ones. It is pretty touristy, even with a good number of Italians here, but there is also a lot of Scandinavians, Germans, Dutchmen, Brits, etc.
No, I cannot recommend this accommodation, you should rather get a place outside the old part of town, where you can park your car and load your stuff off properly and not listen to a disco night after night after night. We and other guests also grumbled about how we would get our stuff down to the car when we needed to go home again. A retired, British couple we met even considered throwing their bags down in desperation!
We were there a week, which was 5 days too much, 2 nights a another hotel would've been perfect.
