Our stay with Alessandro and his family was great. The apartment was spacious and clean, and had a nice outdoor seating area. The Abbate family was kind enough to offer up their washing machine for us to do a load of laundry.

Alessandro was in constant communication with us before arrival and was a great help in navigating the city. For those who haven't been, Taormina is very difficult to navigate by car. We did not have a cell phone, and needed to stop in Taormina to find some WiFi and connect with Alessandro for directions to his apartment, which is situated at the very top of the hill. Alessandro drove his car down to meet us and drive us all the way up to the apartment, which was greatly appreciated.

The apartment is about a 15 minute walk from the center of town, with quite a steep incline to walk up back to the apartment. We did not mind, with plenty of gelato to burn off by the end of the night.

While we found Taormina to be much more touristy than we expected, we would certainly recommend Alessandro's place to stay. It was quiet, comfortable, had easy parking, and served its purpose very well.

Would strongly recommend printing out detailed directions to the apartment beforehand, or arranging a meeting place beforehand for Alessandro to escort you up the apartment by car.