We agree with the previous review - a fantastic hotel and a brilliant holiday.

We booked a suite which was very spacious with a large living area with sofa bed, easy chair, dining-type table and chairs, TV, fridge, tea and coffee making facilities. The fridge was stocked as a mini bar but there was a little spare room where we stored our own drinks. The bedroom was a good size with loads of storage space - even a separate drawer unit sectioned for shoes! There was also second TV. The safe was larger than usual and was free of charge. There were 2 showers - one over the bath and a separate cubicle in a further room off the main bathroom. The room card gives you access to all areas including the car park and also the gates in and out of the grounds. It is also needed for the lifts.

Food was excellent although the choice was not extensive. This was not a problem though as if you did not like any of the courses on offer, the waiter would suggest alternatives which would be made especially for you. If you are not sure which wine to have with your meal, the hotel sommelier will let you try different wines before deciding. There are also regular wine tasting evenings at a cost of 10 euro each.

The grounds are extensive and even though we were there for the last weeks of the school holidays, sunbeds were available all through the day at any of the pools.

There was low-key entertainment on a few evenings but check the hotel weekly newsletter which also gives details of entertainment held regularly in Bardolino main piazza and Cisano harbour.

The walk along the promenade to Bardolino, at a steady

We stayed at the Caesius for 7 nights, having chosen it because it was the closest and cheapest 4* hotel to Verona in the Thomson Lakes and Mountains brochure. We were unsure of what to expect as there were few photos in the brochure and many of the facilities were not due to open until 2006. The rep told us that the hotel had only started out as the 2 small buildings and pool in the grounds of the main hotel and that the main complex was indeed brand new for 2006. The official rating is 4 1/2 stars now and it would not surprise me if the Thomson ratings and prices increase in 2007 as the Caesius is a very nice hotel.

The reception is light and airy with lots of comfortable chairs and some interesting water sculptures. The reception desk is open 24hrs and you can book excursions and hire bikes and keyboards for the internet from there.

The main bar and restaurant are on the floor below. Dinner is 4 courses by waiter service and you are allocated the same table for the duration of your stay (more on the food later!). You can also eat in the Augustus a la carte restaurant for no extra cost if you book in advance. Breakfast is served in the main restaurant from 7-10 and in the Augustus from 8-11 - there is slightly more choice in the main restaurant but we preferred the Augustus as the terrace overlooks the lake. The bar is open for most of the day and serves ice creams and cakes as well as drinks.

Evenings there were fairly low key with entertainment in the form of small groups of musicians on some nights. The drinks normally came with some sort of snack such as crisps or peanuts, plus there was a free buffet of cakes and fruit every afternoon. There is also an 'Enoteca' - a wine tasting bar where you could buy wine or attend wine tasting evenings and some nights they served free aperitifs before dinner. Lunch could be bought from the pool bar, terrace bar or it was only a 5 minute walk to the cafes of Cisano.

The other hotel facilities were equally as impressive. The gardens are lovely and fit in well with the pool areas. There are 3 main outdoor pools - one which has various Jacuzzi functions and a small children's pool. There were always plenty of sun beds and parasols available. The outdoors pools looked lovely but it wasn't really warm enough for us to want to use them. We didn't have the best of weather while we were there, so the indoor pool and spa were a godsend.

The pool itself is not very big but has an added bonus of a separate Jacuzzi pool with 5 different types of Jacuzzi - we loved this. The spa area was open in the afternoons and had three different saunas of varying temperatures and humidity and a number of 'emotional showers' - if you've not come across these before then I won't spoil the surprise. We spent a lovely couple of afternoons making full use of this, only slightly marred by the presence of other guests in the nude (I know there's nothing wrong with naturism but it doesn't mean I want to experience it at close quarters!).

There was also a free gym and a treatment spa which had thermal pools and Ayurveda treatments at varying costs - but we didn't make use of this. The hotel also lay on activities such as aqua aerobics, walking and boat trips - details of these can be found in the weekly newsletter that you can get from reception.

The hotel is located just outside Cisano on the lake road to Bardolino on the land side but only a 1 minute walk from the lake shore. The promenade walk to Bardolino is flat and takes less than 30 mins. Buses run past the hotel in both directions - the nearest stops are in the centre of Cisano or Bardolino. We didn't hire a car, but if we had done then the hotel has a large free underground car park.

When we booked, there hadn't been any 'standard' rooms left so we had to pay a bit extra for a room with balcony/terrace. We were actually given a room in one of the garden buildings with a terrace, which I wasn't too happy with as it was only separated by a low bush from the room next door and we therefore had little privacy. The room itself was very nice with a large wardrobe and lots of storage space, although we could have done with more hanging space in the bathroom. The hotel provides you with pool towels, robes, slippers and a bag for use while you are there - a nice touch.

The TV had BBC World and you could also use it to surf the internet by hiring a keyboard from reception. Despite a notice saying that non-hotel items would be removed from the minibar, we managed to use it to store our water all week (you can get very cheap mineral water from the Aldi just down the road - turn right out of the hotel). The hotel website claims that the rooms are soundproofed but this definitely isn't true, though it wasn't excessively noisy. You are given key cards on arrival - keep these with you at all times as the lift and the majority of external and internal doors can only be opened this way.

We stayed at the Caesius on a half board basis. Breakfast is served buffet style with a huge range of hot and cold foods including sausages, bacon, eggs, cereals, cold cheeses and meats, bread, yoghurts and pastries. We never came away hungry! In the evening, we did have the choice of booking a table at the a la carte restaurant, but the food in the main restaurant was so good that we never felt the need to go elsewhere. Every night we had a 4 course waiter service meal, with a set starter, a choice of first and second courses and salad and desert buffets. The menus were different every night including dishes such as wild boar pasta, beef carpaccio with pear sauce and French onion soup. The service was sometimes a little slow but we would go and get salad or bread while we were waiting.

We ate lunch at the pool bar a couple of times and the sandwiches/burgers etc were good and not too expensive. We also ate in some of the cafes in Cisano which were fine.

Overall, we really liked this hotel and were glad that we had chosen it. We would recommend it to anyone, but there were very few families with children there so it is more suited to couples.