Vanda's apartment is a modern and stylish conversion at the top (3 floors, no lift) of a quite plain building. The conversion is great - minimal steel stairs take you up to either a mezzanine bedroom, the main bedroom and the absolute highlight - the terrace! This is probably one of the best views in Palermo - straight towards the Cathedral and the Palazzo Normanni, with the mountains wrapping round in the distance, It is private and is a sun trap - great for breakfast and evening drinks. You can get away from the bustle and dust of the streets up here and really relax. The bathroom is smart and well equipped and there is a simple, spacious kitchen that you can use to prepare food with ingredients from the market right outside your door. The only thing to note is that there are no doors to either of the bedrooms, so if there are more than 2, you need to be good friends or family. I would also say that the stairs would not be easy for very small kids. Neither of these were an issue for us.
Vanda's communication with us before and during the trip was very attentive. She arranged a taxi transport from the airport as we were arriving late and this was seamless and the driver friendly and helpful. Vanda and her partner spent quite a while with us going over maps and restaurant / gelateria suggestions. They also brought with them a special guidebook for the special 'open Palermo' weekend and explained how we could get tickets and access to all sorts of wonderful interiors not normally open to the public. As architects, this was a fascinating extra for us. Vanda also kindly let us stay later on check out day as we had a later flight.
The flat is situated right in the middle of the old city in the Capo market district - you feel absolutely in the throb of daily life here, which is conducted on the streets. We didn't feel that this was unsafe and everyone was friendly, but it wasn't an area full of tourists later in the evenings. We loved it though, thanks Vanda!