Hotel Gutowski ★★

A boutique hotel overlooking the sea on the ancient island of Ortigia, downtown Siracusa

Siracusa's historic center lies on Ortigia Island, girdled by a sea road. Along this road, in a neighborhood where homes are guarded against witches by bundles of twigs and dreamcatcher-like devices, and where sun-wrinkled old men sit in doorways mending fishing nets, sits the best boutique hotel in Sicily.

In 1999, Paola Pretsch converted a pair of powder blue buildings into 25 rooms overlooking the Mediterranean. She renovated these old fishermen's and artisans' houses along minimalist lines with traditional touches, mixing mod furnishings and old stone doorways, abstract modern rugs on floors of fitted tiles or polished cement, and gauzy curtains to diffuse the sunrise that floods into the rooms off the sea.

Typical of the chic styling are the hanging lamps inspired by the traditional wicker lobster traps in the nearby market.

In the main building, the rooms with direct sea views (rather than lateral ones from a narrow balcony) are 1, 4, 8, 9, and 15—that last room accessed across its own private terrace.

In the annex a few yards up the road, the views are best from second-floor rooms 24–26; from the first floor, only the sea horizon is visible above the massive stone fortifications across the road.

The scrumptious breakfast consists of homemade cookies and cakes, fresh fruits and cheeses, organic marmalades and honeys, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

There's also a free shuttle from the hotel to the archaeoglical area.

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