Our stay in House LaVetere was disappointing and dangerous. The pictures of the accommodations were flattering, but unfortunately didn’t represent reality. The apartment was shoddy, loud, the bed was a mattress on wood blocks with cheap linens, and the neighborhood unsafe. My husband and I were robbed in our car while waiting at a crosswalk by two motorcycle thieves who stole our backpack full of camera equipment, iPad, etc but fortunately we did not sustain injury. Catania is a city that I would strongly encourage the visitor to bypass. The churches are tagged with graffiti, dog excrement is left in the middle of the sidewalks, and teenagers tell visitors to F___off!. We stayed one night and we left early the next day. As for the owner of the apartment we saw her briefly for about three minutes, she spoke very little English, and so we had almost no interaction with her. I would not recommend this place or the city to visit.