Salvatore is an excellent host, one of the best we’ve ever had. He was very helpful, answered all my questions, gave great suggestion for parking at the port, and was always ready to help. A bottle of wine and water as welcome gifts are nice. But I am sorry I can not give a 5 star review as he twice requested and that is explained below.
The apartment is downstairs in his building’s basement with a walkout and wonderful terrace. It is excellent value for a couple or small family but probably not good for multiple couples as there is only one air conditioner in one bedroom (which was broken during our stay) and no windows in the other two bedrooms. If it were not for the terrace I may not have been able to tolerate this apartment. Still it had everything we needed for cooking and was clean and it is a very good value. Parking is free on the streets nearby but a couple times we had to park a couple blocks away.
The location is different from the listing and is closer to the cable car to Erice, farther from port than the listing shows but an easy drive.
The one thing that nearly ruined our stay was that the air conditioner was broken. The fan wouldn’t even stay on and it would not cool in the slightest. The first night I could not sleep as it was warm and there is not good ventilation in the apartment. The second night I kept the entry door open all night and that cooled things so it was comfortable enough but I was concerned about sleeping with the door open. Salvatore checked out the unit as soon as I alerted him after the first night (after saying the controller was probably too far away) but acknowledged it was broken after he checked and said it would be fixed however not until after our stay was over.
If Salvatore wasn’t such a good host this would have been a three star review or worse. On the first night I considered looking for alternative lodging it was so bad and if this had been summer rather than autumn I most definitely would not have stayed.