Palace Hotel

Needs a makeover. Fading elegance. Not Five star. Food needs improvement. Third time here

Gym with Technogym machines, lots of light from big windows, brilliant. I asked staff to open it at 6am for me rather than at 7am and they did it.

No ironing board in the rooms nor access to ironing facilities. Laundry service can iron clothes at the price of 5 eur per item

The reception staff were exceptionally helpful, in particular Doriano. He arranged all our taxis to and from Ravenna to visit the UNESCO sites and the Opera. In addition he recommended "Claudia" as our guide and she was outstanding. The bar staff were also very helpful when we arrived back late in the evening after the Opera. All the chambermaids we saw were polite and cleaned our room proficiently.

The Restaurant. We found the food well below the standard we would expect of a 5 star hotel. The waiters were by and large very good and presented the food with the usual dramatic flourish but the food under the lids was often poor. The squid we had with the salmon was very old and dark in colour. The vegetables were often cold and limp ? cook/chill/reheated. We realise that it was low season and there were only between 10-15 people sometimes in the dining room but the quality needs to be maintained at ALL times. Is there a problem with the staffing or supervision in the kitchen? We would have probably given you a 5 star rating but for this weakness.