Imagine a 19th century building with very tall and decorated ceilings. Now imagine a modern DIY renovation that adds a platform and stairs, creating a mezzanine bedroom. That's this apartment. The living room still has those tall ceiling, so you can see what it looked like before. Parts of the structure did look like DIY jury-rigging, but overall felt reliable and like pretty good craftsmanship.
The DIY feel unfortunately extends to the air conditioning, which is done using two portable AC units in the bedrooms, with hot air outlet hoses attaching to a circular hole in the window. That is, only the bedrooms are air conditioned. During our visit it was over 30°C and we had to keep these AC units running throughout the night to keep the rooms at a bearable temperature. We tried to switch them off for the first night - big mistake, it got really hot. Once on, the rooms do get pleasant, so the units clearly do cope. However, this does mean that you have to deal with the noise.
The water in the shower and the bathroom sink was incredibly low, which made showering more difficult.
The apartment is located in the very center of Catania, which comes with advantages and disadvantages. It's very close to anything you might want to visit, which makes it a great base for walks around the city - you can for sure reach everything in the center by foot. However, it's also rather noisy during the night (you always hear cars, police, ambulances) and basically inaccessible by car - parking was very difficult (especially for us, not used to Sicilian driving styles and narrow, one-way streets) and it was only when the host suggested a nearby parking lot that we managed to park. (I would suggest that anyone who considers staying here researches the parking situation thoroughly before the trip.)
The host (Macello) recommended a very nice restaurant in the area (which we very much enjoyed), left a list of recommended nearby places, and offered to provide more tips if we'd message him, which was appreciated.