We drove from Catania, you definitely need a car to stay in Trescastagni. We has a little trouble finding the street with out sat nav, the apartment is opposite a little square with a cafe/bar in the middle. There was always parking and it's free. Roberta was unable to meet us but organised us to meet with her brother. The entire family lives in the building and we met them all, they were all very lovely. Roberta's father gave us some fresh grapes and wine that was made by her uncle. Very much appreciated. The apartment was really nicely layed out and beautifully finished. The views from the roof top were spectacular and we spent every evening soaking up the views. There were problems with the air conditioning and it was not working well so the loft was really hot at night, making it difficult to sleep. But Roberta was very quick to sort this out and in the end a new air conditioner was fitted. which made a huge difference. We also had difficulty logging on to the WiFi but were given another log on and Roberta had a technician come out and fix the router. So that was all sorted too. It is about 20 to 25 to get to the beach. We went to quite a few different beaches for day trips but the close one we went to was Fondachello, easy to park and walk to. Plus the day trips to Marinello, Taormina and Acireale. The base of Mount Etna was 30 minutes drive. It does get cold walking up Mount Etna, I was wearing fleece by the time we got to the end of the chair lifts at 2500m. Trescastagni was a really quaint village. There is a pizzeria restaurant at the bottom of the building, you can look into it from the rooftop. The Pizzas are huge and delicious. It does open around 8pm and can be quite noisy from the roof top. The shop across of the road was open from 8am to 2pm then 5pm to 8pm, which was very convenient, you can't drink the tap water so you need to buy bottles. The village if you walk towards the larger square has a post office, restaurants and gift shops. It's lovely!