A wonderful month in Santa Flavia, Sicily! Anna and Umberto's apartment is in a brand new vacation apartment complex that they are building. The pictures are very accurate and show you how clean and new everything is.
The special part of this trip was the help and attention that Anna and Umberto provided. We stayed for an entire month and Anna helped us find a babysitter for the kids, someone to keep the apartment clean and cook traditional food for us, someone to help drive us to different local attractions. Anything we needed, they were there to help and provide great recommendations for everything.
The apartment we stayed in had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a large kitchen/living/balcony area. Everything was new and worked well (kitchen, washing machine, shower water pressure, air conditioning for the days it was very hot!). There is a very nice pool area with plenty of reclining sun chairs and umbrellas. This was perfect for our family with kids.
Porticello/Santa Flavia is a small and friendly beach town, with little streets, a few beaches and several good food shops, restaurants and gelaterias. Many of the restaurants and even the stores will provide delivery. Nearby there is Sant'elia beach (about a 10 minute walk) and Santa Flavia town centre (about a 20 minute walk), where there are some stores (check out La Bottega di Lulù for some locally-made limoncello!) and a train station. Beach shoes are a good idea because the beaches are a mix of sand and pebbles and can have pieces of glass on them.
We decided to travel without a car, which was perfect for us to really take things slow and relax. However, there is parking available at the apartment. The apartment is also easy to reach from Cefalu or Palermo, which were nice ideas for day trips.
Light sleepers might want to bring ear plugs during high tourist times. A few nights there was live music at a nearby restaurant that we could hear.
Overall, we had a wonderful stay at St. Nicholas Cove. Thank you, Anna and Umberto!