As anyone can see from the listing photos this is a lovely apartment with striking decor. The location is excellent for exploring Catania and there are at least a dozen restaurants to choose from on the street below the apartment. The famous Savia pastry shop is just around the corner and a more modest Paneficeria even closer, which sells wine as well as breads and deli items. In short, there is a lot to appreciate and enjoy about staying in this apartment and we were glad we chose it.
There are however, a few things I wish I had understood more clearly in advance.
1) it is not easy to arrive at the apartment by car. I’m afraid we may have erroneously driven on a pedestrian only street (Via Pacini) in our attempt to get there. In any event we did stop there and took our bags up before going to park our car.
2) The elevator is tricky even with Simona’s strong instructions how to use it. The apartment is on the 7th floor of the building and the elevator only goes to the 6th so you need to be willing and able to climb the final flight
3) The roof top patio which has garnered so much praise in the reviews is truly delightful. What I hadn’t grasped is that it is the main living/dining space for the apartment. In chilly or wet weather there is no place inside the apartment to comfortably lounge or eat. The small table and banquette in the corner of the kitchen is cramped for two people and not particularly comfortable. There has been rain prior to our arrival and we couldn’t sit on the patio sofa without getting wet unless we put plastic over the cushions.
4) The kitchen is super stylish and adequate for plating a take out meal or heating prepared food in the microwave but it is NOT equipped for any kind of real cooking. There is a French press for making coffee but no kettle for boiling the water.
5) The apartment is open concept and thus from the bedroom you can clearly hear anything happening in the kitchen or bathroom. Having said that, the windows effectively blocked out noise from outside.
6) I did not have a problem with this but If you are someone who needs bright light in the bathroom for make-up or shaving or whatever you won’t find it here.
The bed was large and comfortable. Sheets and towels were nice.
I don’t mean to be critical with the above comments but I thought it might help others to have a ‘reality check’. As I said at the top, we were quite happy staying there.