Zaiera Resort

The Zaiera Resort is located around 25mins from Syracuse just outside the small town of Solarino. The hotel is set in a quiet location and was both clean and modern on first impresson. We stayed in a standard room which contained a double bed, LCD TV, air conditioning, a small balcony and very nice en-suite bathroom.
The hotel has its own restaurant serving traditional Sicilian foods and an excellent wine selection to suit all budgets (A decent bottle can be purchased for 12Euros, a pizza around 5 or 6 Euros, and a 3course meal is approx. 15-20Euros per head). The hotel spa was one of the best I have been to and included in our booking was a daily 15min massage as well as free use of the pool(unheated), sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. There are other beauty treatments available at additional cost. The staff throughout the hotel were excellent, very polite and helpful although very few spoke any english.
There were only a couple of minor points that stopped this hotel being 10/10. The location although peaceful means that there is very little locally and a 25min drive to Syracuse is is required to find other restaraunts or activities. The swimming pool was being refurbished and as a result we were only able to use it for one of the seven days we were there.
Sicily itself was a very laid back and relaxed country. Although part of the EU very few people spoke any English making it a different experience to mainland Europe. The weather was excellent - visiting in late October we had 25 degrees+ nearly every day and no rain at all. The main attractions around the South East were the very beautiful ancient buildings and sites particularly around Syracuse and Ortygia in addition to the wealth of good restaraunts and cafes that offer excellent food and wine almost everywhere. The beach at Arenella is well worth a visit and a trip further north to Etna should be a top priority. We would definately recommend getting a car if you plan to travel around a lot but be warned the driving, particularly in the cities, is not for the faint hearted and at times verges on being quite dangerous!
Overall, as a young couple (22 and 25) we found it a very enjoyable and different experience to a normal European holiday. If your after some good food, wine and weather within 3hours flying time of the UK than Sicily could be for you.