This was an excellent hotel in a brilliant situation on the Corso Umberto close to the Duomo and Wunderbar piazzas. A delicious breakfast buffet is served on a terrace overlooking Mt Etna. The staff were very friendly, efficient and helpful, and packed us a breakfast when we took an early train to Syracuse. Our room was great: seaview and balcony overlooking a quiet piazza. A jacaranda tree was in full bloom. This hotel is very good value and fully deserves its 3 star rating. The building has character and the rooms are comfortable. The booking form on the hotel's website is easy to use and makes clear the various room options. We are astonished at some of the adverse comments listed below. We can highly recommend this hotel.

The Hotel is located on the main street of this little sicilian city. We found it very confy and owned by one of the nicest person we met in this trip. We had lots of advice from her for what to do and where to go. The only sad thing was the weather. Not such hot as we expect. But we found a very good surprise on the friday of holy week. There was a very beautiful and religious procession made by women for the local Madonna. Rooms are good,clean and very quite. We had a great staying and we'll definately get back there.

The price for stay in Del Corso was outraged! The address of the hotel was on the main street, but our room was in a back street with steps which was not easy with luggages. The room was nice and clean. The breakfast was below standard compared with the price that we paid. We were a little bit disappointed with Toamina, because it was very touristic, A lot of young kids, trying to look posh. I feel like I was in party island Mikanos in Greece than in Sicily. Plus the beaches were horrible! They're very rocky and dirty with trash in the water, and also a lot of jellyfish. It's very crowded and we had a hard time to find a space just to lay down. One impressive thing was the Greek theater. We saw an orchestra concert there, and it was perfect! It's beautiful with nice view and the sound was great. We even heard people footsteps while we were listening the music. BEWARE! Wunderbar on the main street was a ripoff. We paid 12 Euros for 2 Granitas. Stay away from a place that don't tell you the price. There are a lot of places like that in Toamina. We prefer to eat at side street restaurants than the main ones. We ended up not spending time too much in Toamina. If I could choose to book the trip again, I would not stay in Toamina period.

Since the earlier (2005) reviews this place must have had a major revamp or have changed ownership. Quite simply it's a great place to stay: the rooms aren't huge, but those at the rear overlook a very pretty garden and arabesque building, with views down to the sea. Considering The Del Corso is on Taormina's main strip, they are remarkably quiet too. They are scrupulously clean and well worth the asking price. The staff are corteous and helpful, breakfast is fine. The lift is tiny and rather old-fashioned, but it works. The hotel offers a 40 percent discount for the multistory car park 200m away, which works out to about €8 per day. We travelled with our two kids, aged 5 & 6, and the Del Corso happily squeezed us into a triple room where we simply lifted the top mattress off the single bed to create an ad hoc extra bed. To summarise: intimate, charming, inexpensive, convenient and about as central as you could hope to be - and a much better choice than some of the grander places further from the centre.

I have to disagree with the two reviewers who wrote before me... The hotel is fine and reasonable value in an expensive place. It is in a wonderful location, although it will never be completely quiet anywhere in an Italian town! The rooms overlooking the garden and the sea are certainly the best, and the tree doesn't spoil the view, but adds to it. The staff were at least OK, and one in particular was wonderful. The one criticism concerned our bathroom. It was in need of some rennovation and a shower cabinet as opposed to a (new) curtain. As ever - and this is often the case in the most expensive hotels too - there were no hooks in the bathroom and no shelves or storage space other than the usual flimsy thing below the mirror. So put your clothes and/or towel on the toilet during your shower and wait for them to gracefully slide off while you're not looking. Your washbag has stay on the floor. A small point, but as I said very few hotels get this right! The same hook issue applies to the back of the room door if you don't want to hang a wet coat in the cupboard. The heating in the room - such a you will need it - is warm air from the air-con which is fine once you have worked out how the system works. The bathroom had no heating which, admittedly, is not relevant most of the year. Breakfast is fine, but you have the impression that the "until" 10 means just that. They really don't want anyone staying much later and you really have to ask if you want more put out on the buffet after about 9.30. The website is definitely NOT a fraud - it just doesn't show the need for a bit of refurbishment here and there. All in all, I would certainly recommend it if you can get rooms facing the back.