The self contained apartment is part of a big house with separate entrances. It is very secure, with a locked front gate and locked apartment garden gate.
There is complete privacy from other guests, although we did find that in the bedrooms and red bathroom we could hear lots of noises (footsteps etc) when other guests were directly above. This isn’t an issue in the kitchen and living room areas as it’s single floor with no one directly above.
The apartment has air conditioning in the bedrooms and in the large open plan space, which worked well to cool the apartment in the July heat.
The kitchenette has almost everything you need (except an oven) and enough space to prepare and store food. The coffee machine was a nice touch and the coffee pods are available to buy at the supermarket.
The bedrooms are a good size and plenty of space to hang clothes etc. The bathrooms are nice and spacious with two showers available. As it’s rural Sicily, toilet paper must be put in a bin next to the toilet - no toilet paper down the toilet.
There’s a large open space for socialising and relaxing with sofas and a tv, this area opens out to the pool which is a nice area to sit in.
The outside pool was a necessity in the July heat, which we used everyday. It isn’t heated in summer but for 30-35 degree daytime weather was a good temperature to cool down in.
The apartment is in a rural area. As others have said you need to have a car to drive around, it just isn’t possible to walk down the roads (especially at night with limited streetlights). It’s a 15 min drive to the main hub of Syracuse and 15 min drive to a beach with a lido. There are other amenities closer which are smaller/less busy. The supermarket is around 10 min drive and has everything you need. There is a farm next door, but we didn’t find it disturbed us. There is some noise from machinery and deliveries, but overall the apartment is very quiet and relaxing.
We really appreciated the pasta salad and drinks to welcome us to the apartment. Stephanie was easily contactable via WhatsApp. Check-in must be done in person (no lock box), so you must agree a time to meet to check-in in person which we found slightly challenging on our evening flight especially with the current issues with delayed flights. To avoid missing the last check in time of 23:30 we arranged for our friend who was staying locally for a wedding to check in for us, as Stephanie explained if we missed check in we would need to get a hotel for the evening, which given the cost of the apartment for a week, was an additional cost and stress we didn’t want to encounter.
The deposit must be paid in cash, and was given back to us in cash when we checked out.