Here is our review, Riccardo really insisted that we wrote one. I hope this review is helpful to everyone who plans to stay at the apartment. I thank Riccardo for the pleasant hospitality.
I stayed in Riccardo's apartment for a week with my girlfriend and her daughter (3 people total). Unfortunately, Riccardo was traveling before we arrived and we did not get the chance to meet him during check-in, nor he had the chance to check the apartment before our arrival. We were greeted to the apartment by Maria, who very kindly explained most of the things and workings of the apartment. She was very kind and helpful. The apartment had an amazing location and was very spacious.
There were a few issues that I think it would be important to mention, that may be particular to my experience: - The bathrooms were smelling horribly during our whole stay, sometimes even making it hard to sleep at night. - The top bedroom, which is the "suite", has a really low ceiling. I bumped my head many times, specially in the bathroom which I particularly avoided because of the smell. - The double bed in the top room was broken and seemed extremely fragile. We had to really avoid sitting on it, for example. I noticed the bed slats had been switched many times and there were different types put randomly which made the bed extra fragile. - The electricity went down because we had two ACs on (on two bedrooms) while we were cooking and using the oven. - The internet at the apartment was not good, we had connection problems many times and had to restart the router to try to improve it.
Those were the main issues in my opinion. There were a few others, such as the gas can was empty as we arrived and we had to get a new one. Riccardo helped with that, calling a company to bring in a new one and then given us the reimbursement. Another minor issue, for example, was that the shower drain was clogged. And for some reason, I experienced a major allergy reaction to the washing product they had at the apartment.
On the bright side, the apartment had a really good location. Close to plenty good restaurants and historical places. We managed to walk/take a bus to all of the places we wanted to visit in Catania. Riccardo was also very responsive, replying to the messages very quickly and being very supportive. We had the chance to have a short meeting with him in one evening, where we had coffee and he paid for it. He also recommended a really nice restaurant for the dinner that evening. He seemed a nice person and a great entrepreneur. He also has a lodge in an island nearby that looked great in the photos.