Mr & Mrs Smith

Azienda Agricola Mandranova

Sicily, Italy

Hugging Sicily’s stunning southern coast, Azienda Agricola Mandranova is more than just a guesthouse with friendly owners. To stay here is to be thrust into the heart of Sicilian family life – with its emphasis on conviviality and the cucina. Regular cooking classes, in which ingredients are plucked straight from the olive tree-filled gardens, make the evening meal a focal point of the blissful day.

Need to know

• Rooms 13, including four suites.
• Rates Double rooms from $170.39 (€127), excluding tax at 10 per cent.
  The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (€127) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
• More details Rates include breakfast.
• Facilities Library of books, music and films, pool table. In rooms: air-conditioning, bottled water and bath products by Culti; flatscreen TVs in suites. There’s no WiFi, but an internet point is available between 9am and 11 am every morning.
• Poolside The little square little infinity pool (once an irrigation tank) looks down over the olive trees and fields beyond from its hillside perch above the farm. The violet-tinted water does wonders for the skin, thanks to its high sulphur content.
• Check-out 11am – though later check-out may be possible, availability permitting. Earliest check-in, 2pm. Reception closes at 7pm, so check-in is impossible any later.
• Children Though the hotel is geared towards adults, kids are welcome. Baby cots are free, and older children can stay on a sofa bed in the suites for €25 a night (including breakfast). Babysitting (€10 an hour) and children’s menus are available on request.
• Also There’s a two-night minimum stay. The restaurant and one dedicated suite are wheelchair-accessible. The hotel is perched by a main road, so you might hear some occasional traffic noise.

Food and drink at Azienda Agricola Mandranova

• Hotel restaurant The Mandranova restaurant is where co-owner Silvia serves up traditional Sicilian dishes such as torta di mandorle (almond cake) and timballo di anelletti (Sicilian ring pasta with peas and aubergine), all made with fresh-from-the-garden ingredients. Don’t be surprised if the hotel’s dogs settle by your feet throughout the meal.
• Dress code Casual and relaxed – think Palmeritan gentility on a country break.
• Top table In summer, ask for one of the tables alongside the casale (main house), so you can dine alfresco by candlelight.
• Last orders The restaurant stops serving at 8.30pm; the last glasses of local wine are poured around midnight.
• Room service Tapenade, local cheeses, Sicilian wines, bread and, of course, olive oil can be brought to your room between 9am and 8pm.
• Hotel bar There’s no actual bar, but guests can take aperitivi and digestivi until 11pm in the two living rooms or on one of the stylish mint-green plastic sofas set in the gardens.

Azienda Agricola Mandranova S.S. 115 - Km 217 92020, Palma di Montechiaro, Agrigento, Sicily, 92020