First the positives: the apartment is cheerily decorated with Sicilian ceramics and colors which makes it visually appealing. The air conditioning works great on the top 2 floors and the ground floor stays cool if you leave them on. Like everyone says, the location is great. It is steps away from a laundromat that will do the laundry for you for a small fee above the cost of the machines and detergent (totally worth the 2 euros they charged - drop off in the AM, pick up in the afternoon!). More important is the fact that it is very close to the grocery store, and that is a big plus because there are no other grocery stores in the entire town of Taormina that you can walk to.
Here come the negatives: being close to the grocery store is important because you will need to buy your own toilet paper, soap, paper towels, dishwashing liquid, garbage bags, etc. if you plan on staying for a week. The apartment has extremely minimal basic supplies. Of course one always expects to buy food and a few extra things when staying at an AirBNB, but some things should just be there to help the visitor. For example, it is a rule to put out the garbage almost every day (materials are separated by paper, plastic, organic, etc. so each day the pickup is for a different material) but there is no supply of garbage bags to help do this, you have to buy your own. If you leave any garbage behind, the instructions state that there will be a fine. It is standard to expect guests to dispose of garbage, but at least supply some bags to help do it.
Unfortunately, my check-in experience was not good. Despite filling out the registration they require ahead of time with all my flight arrival information and despite messaging my contact as I was literally getting on the bus from the Catania airport that goes to Taormina, (about 1 or 1 1/2 hours trip, depending on traffic) so I could very accurately let my contact know when to expect me, I was told they were very busy (granted, it was Saturday) and I would have another person work with me. That person was 30 minutes away somewhere else so we had to wait outside in the heat after a very long journey from the states. Just keep in mind you are dealing with an agency, not a private owner. I will say both women I dealt with were very pleasant.
We did see a few cockroaches, but I figured, it's Italy, these buildings are ancient so it probably comes with just being in a crowded, old neighborhood. There were teeny ants on the dining table from day 1. They should have put a clean tablecloth on before our arrival.
The shower drain is very clogged so it needs some maintenance. Again, not a deal breaker.
I did find it unusual for an AirBNB to basically have little to no information hanging around the place. No brochures, no bus schedules, just a handwritten piece of paper with 4 restaurants on it. Basically, no guidance without having to constantly message for help.
As another review stated, WIFI is not dependable. The last couple of days, it didn't work at all. I'm sure they would have come and fixed it, but I didn't want to have to message and then wait around when the priority for us was to fit in more excursions away from town, (the Corso is almost unbearable to walk down in the summer, it is so packed with tourists, like being in Times Square at New Year's.) so I ended up paying for cell phone data through my carrier because of the spotty WIFI.
The apartment has very little natural light, so it's fine if you don't plan on spending much time there in the daytime. You will primarily want to be out and about anyway or find a place in town with free WIFI if you need to get some work done in the day.
We were 4 in total, probably would work best for one or 2 people.
In sum, I loved the location, but the place itself is just OK.