Gresi is super helpful and the apartment is clean, renovated and has everything you need.
We arrived many hours late due to problems with a rental car, but Gresi told us not to worry and her mother let us in. The next morning Gresi was so kind as to come and ask us how we're doing and give us some tips on the area.
We definitely saw how helpful Gresi is when we accidentally locked ourselves out of the apartment (we felt so silly!) with the key inside the key hole. The only way to get it open was to call the firemen - what a thing to remember. Gresi solved the whole problem while we were enjoying a trip to Etna and gave us the keys again in the evening, all the time telling us not to worry. Such a great host.
Riposto and Giarre have lovely markets that are busy in the morning and evening, and some nice restaurants. A small shop for necessities is just around the corner. Gresi even left us some snacks, which was good as we arrived late in the night tired.
We definitely recommend having a car while you stay there. We unfortunately didn't have a car on the first three days of our stay and it is managable, but a bit difficult. Mind you we are young people. We did A LOT of walking on those days and you spend too much energy on just getting from place to place and waiting for the train. The taxi from the airport is about 60€ and the train station about 4 km away through busy traffic and narrow streets. The town is meant more for driving than walking. If you have a car it's no problem, many major sites are closeby, Etna and Taormina for example.
I recommend staying at Gresi's place! We enjoyed our stay very much! Thank you Gresi!