We had overall a good time in the apartment of Giovanni in Catania but (as it is often the case) there are pros and cons with this apartment.
Let's start with the pros:
1) The apartment is very charming, beautifully decorated (Giovanni is an architect) and also very clean
2) Giovanni and his business partner are clearly very professional, they rent several apartments in this same old building that they fully refurbished with a great taste
3) It is very central few minutes walk from the main square (Piazza duomo)
4) They provided us plenty of the information on what to do and see and gave us detailed maps of the area that they prepared for the guests
No the cons:
1) I found the bed extremely uncomfortable (a thin ikea mattress on wooden planks), the second night I did end up sleeping on an ikea sofa bed in the other room that was in comparison better.
2) It was not fully clear to me from the picture that there isn't a proper kitchen but it more kitchen corner built in the living room. They have a sort of office partition behind which there is a sink, a small fridge and a cooker . Therefore is extremely tiny the most you can do is making breakfast definitely not for cooking a proper meal
3) The location (historic part of the city) is a slightly gritty area of the town with a lot of old ran down building (probably this is also part of its charm). However it does feel a bit unsafe at night. Parking it almost impossible (car parked everywhere on the pavements), Giovanni told me that I could park in a small garage he owns (some blocks away) for a fee of 20 euros for 3 nights, however getting in and out the small garage is quite an achievement.