The apartment was exactly as shown in the pictures: a very cozy loft decorated with family antiques, comfortable beds and a surprisingly spacious and well-functioning kitchen. The seaside terrace was a bit small but on beautiful mornings we opened the large windows from the kitchen to the terrace and it was just like sitting outside by the kitchen table and admiring the amazing view of the sun coming up over the sea. There was also a bigger terrace out back but there was not much view to anything but the hill next to the house and the sun rarely shone to that terrace. I imagine in the summer time it must be a lovely place to enjoy the shade, but in October it got a bit chilly so we didn't really use that terrace. The beds were very comfortable and the sheets clean and sweet-smelling. There was some dust on the surfaces but once I had tried to keep the kitchen clean of dust by wiping it several times and didn't manage, I realized the dust must be coming from the busy street down below and cannot be removed completely. The loft is in the fourth floor of very narrow stairs and there is no lift, so be ready to do some real luggage-hauling. But once you get there, it is worth it! The location of the apartment is wonderful: right next to the sea and beside the beach but still within all the services of the city. The street is a bit busy and parking there cost ca. 10 eur per day which was a bit much, but there were no other parking alternatives in the vicinity. We always managed to get a parking place close to the house though: in the summer time that might be tricky. The town itself was a bit busier than the holiday towns we had been to in the south of Sicily, and there were many nice restaurants and a nice Lungomare as well. Of course there was the vicinity of Etna which attracted us, but we ended up liking the town itself very much. We skipped the main beach area entirely because we liked this small beach area very close to the house between two breakwaters. The waves weren't that massive which was great for the kids and the sand was a mix of small pebbles and sand which made it much easier to dust off towels and people alike. Francesco was amazingly helpful, bore with me with my bad Italian because I wanted to practice (even though he speaks excellent English) and gave us all sorts of helpful tips on where to visit and what to do. He would have also organized an Etna tour or a boat trip for us, for which we unfortunately did not have any time after all. And he helped my son to open his toy car package which I couldn't do without tools so he became his personal hero. He suggested a couple of near-by...