HotelGrand Hotel Tiziano e dei Congressi

[magdadh, 02.08.2005]
We ended up in a 70's style, low ceilinged, brightly lit lobby of Grand Hotel Tiziano, simply because the bus from the Brindisi airport terminated more or less in front of that hotel. We went there to ask for information and possibly get a taxi phoned for, but it being after midnight and being in a bit of a state by then we eventually took a double room there for one night and at the cost of 110 euros .

Grand Hotel Tiziano is situated just outside the Old Town area of the beautiful Baroque city of Lecce in Salento region of Apulia (which itself forms the heel of the Italian boot).

The hotel itself, a fairly non-descript rectangle of concrete is your typical example of 70's/early 80's standard, with spacious, low-ceilinged lobby dotted with comfortable leather chairs, interesting cream-shaded lamps and with walls decorated with a selection of fairly bland prints.

We were greeted by an English-speaking but a very cold receptionist whose only enthusiastic reaction was to our enquiry about possibility of ordering the taxi. Granted, as we were not your typical target group of the establishment, dressed in what was closed to dirty rags, with a massive rucksack filled with camping gear on the male back and a child-carrier filled with a snoring 3-year old on the female back; glint of insanity in our eyes. However, the welcome could have been slightly more, er... welcoming. At the end of the day we did take a room - the key to a double room was more or less thrown on the counter and no offer of a travel cot or any other sleeping arrangement for the little one was made.

The room was fairly typical, carpeted, air-conditioned (like the rest of the hotel), equipped with a double bed, small desk under which the fridge-mini bar was held, a soft imitation of an armchair (without arms) and a trouser-press/jacket hanger ensemble. It was small not to say cramped space, with hardly enough room on the floor to make a sleeping arrangement for my husband using the camping gear we had. The decor was bland and plasticky, with the wood element taking the form of ash veneer which always looks fake to me anyway. Two more of those boring prints again (one of them downright kitschy).

The bathroom was impressively tiled in black and aubergine, bright, immaculately clean and again quite small. It had all the standard basics - a shower cubicle, toilet, bidet, sink with an array of little hotel extras including a hair-drier.

With my husband unhappily tucked on the self-inflating camping mat on the floor, my daughter and I placed ourselves on the bed. It was certainly spacious enough for me and a 3 year old and it has to be said that it was nicely firm and very, very comfortable. My standards might have been bit lax as the previous 4 nights we spend in the tent but still, my back did not hurt in the morning and that is rare after a day of carrying heavy stuff.

As breakfast was included in the price of the room we decided to make as full use of it as possible and took the elevator down to the breakfast room in the basement (more bland prints). This was definitely the best part of the whole experience, with the buffet offered being very reasonable in variety and quality. There was cereals, toast, soft and hard boiled eggs, selection of cheese, salami and ham (both cooked and raw), three kinds of jams, fresh and preserved fruit, croissants with jam and chocolate, rolls; blood orange and pineapple juice, coffee and even tea; and if you wanted more - some nifty cake/pastry things to top it all up.

I have to say I have seen more impressive breakfast buffets even in the very few decent hotels I stayed (NB the best was unquestionably in Marriott Hotel in Warsaw) but the breakfast in Tiziano was not bad, in fact it was better than I expected as opposed to everything else that was either worse or just as expected.


The hotel has all the usual trimmings: conference rooms, bar, restaurant (it LOOKED good, but we did not visit), swimming pool and a gym. It is aimed at the business traveller or conference-attendee and provides all those reassuringly standard 4-star services and goods in a bland environment. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with it, but there is nothing that would make it special or worth visiting. The main advantage of Tiziano is its location (handy for the bus terminal); others would be almost certainly found in other establishments of the same category. Lecce has several more 4 star hotels - I do not know how they compare to Tiziano in relation to prices, decor, service or general standards, but if I wanted to spend 110 euro per room in Lecce again, I would certainly look somewhere else and would even consider paying a bit more for a better experience.