My wife & I stayed with Piera at Villa Mozzafiato for 9 days and had an incredible time. The estate itself is like a modern Malibu home plopped into the rolling hills of Sicily, with a view of the hills, the ocean and purple/pink sunsets. The apartment is modern, luxurious, cool and spacious. Piera and her husband Jay are amazing hosts who go above and beyond to make sure you experience the best of Sciacca. Take them up on their home-cooked dinners -- they get the freshest, highest quality ingredients and are amazing cooks (they're total 'foodies'). The location was excellent -- we wanted a place to enjoy the Sicilian country with quiet, with easy access to beaches and town, and central enough to visit anything in western Sicily (Agrigento, Palermo, San Vito lo Capo, Selinunte, Segesta, Trapani all reasonable drives).
In short, we have been traveling for the last 6 months across 4 continents, spending the majority of time at Airbnb's -- and this was our favorite experience. Do not miss out. Detailed review below:
KITCHEN
The apartment is lovely -- modern, sparkling kitchen with extensive cookware. They provided a bottle of chilled sparkling wine, ice water, milk and orange juice on arrival, along with a basket of crackers and snacks. The oil provided is fresh organic olive oil that they pressed from their own olives on the property. We cooked and baked almost every day in the apartment. People who love to cook will appreciate their excellent kitchen knife, as well as a large collection of high-quality housewares (cups, mugs, glasses, plates, etc). The new dishwasher and laundry machines are excellent, eco-friendly and fast -- and they sit inside the kitchen cabinets so noise is muffled. For your trips to the beach, ask Piera to borrow the cooler to bring some cold wine and prosciutto along!
Jay goes to town each morning and brought us fresh pastries and warm local ricotta cheese for breakfast, from all their favorite shops. If you want to go to the farmers market, ask Jay for his recommendations!
DINNERS
Piera and Jay offer home-cooked dinners for a very reasonable additional price. Insist that they dine with you -- they're fun conversationalists! They know everyone in town (they have a favorite butcher, her cousins are fishermen, her other cousin runs a farmer's market, etc) and bring the best ingredients. We had an *amazing* fish and prawn dinner, a steak night, Piera's home-cooked pasta (so good, even after 5 weeks of traveling throughout Italy) and a pizza-making night. My recommendation is to ask them if dinner would be an option the first or second night of your stay, then you decide if you want to take them up on more dinners throughout your stay. We couldn't resist. Better than anything we'd find in restaurants.
BEDROOM/BATHROOM
Very comfortable and spacious. The master bed is quite comfortable - and it's so quiet in the country that you always sleep peacefully. The bedroom furniture is excellent - we unpacked everything the minute we got there and felt so at home.
The bathroom is excellent. The rainfall shower is so nice, especially after long days at the beach. Great temperature, hard water, plenty of storage space. If you're a shower snob, you'll enjoy this. Otherwise, the bathroom is sparkling clean.
The air conditioning is excellent throughout. They have a state-of-the-art system that I haven't seen before, with surround central heating and cooling that also regulates humidity in the home. I haven't seen another home with this level of climate control. If you want some fresh air, all the windows have bug screens (seemingly a rarity throughout Italy). So comfortable.
GROUNDS
Just outside the apartment is a long, shaded, private driveway, including outdoor sofas / table with a giant umbrella. We had our breakfast and lunches out there every day. Upstairs on the veranda, we relaxed in their hammocks and lounge chairs, and that's where dinner happens too. The neighborhood is mostly olive groves, and we enjoyed walking along Piera's farmland, checking out the olive trees.
The estate is secure with an outside gate (and two friendly/cute dogs who consider themselves guard dogs :).
LOCATION
You'll definitely want a car in this region. The reality is that there are some absolutely incredible sights and beaches in western Sicily, but they're so spread out. In all my research, I found that the Sciacca region was the most well-rounded in terms of a great place to stay while also being able to reach all these destinations in a reasonable amount of time (i.e., I don't want to drive more than 2 hours one-way to see a sight).
- South: It's 5-10 minutes to Sciacca town. 15 minutes to a great local swimmable beach called Timpi Russi, 40 minutes to an amazing beach called Capo Bianco, 45 min to Scala dei Turchi, 1 hour to Valley of the Temples, 40 min to Selinunte.
- North/West: 1.5 hours to Palermo, 1.5-2 hours to San Vito lo Capo and the beaches on that peninsula. 1 hour to Segesta, 1.5 hours to Trapani.
BOAT EXPERIENCE
Highly recommend asking Piera if her cousin is available to take you on his boat. It's a very nice, spacious boat that takes off from the Sciacca harbor nearby. It was only 50 euros per person for a 4 hour trip, including an excellent lunch with wine! We headed out along the coast and anchored at two spots outside of popular beaches, and swam in the crystal clear turquoise water on a hot summer day. Incredible.