Ivana was wonderful, sending maps, bus schedules, ideas well before we arrived. Unfortunately we had a misunderstanding as to where to meet (the Air BNB confirm prints out a different address than the one that they live at) and it took a bit of sorting out since Ivana's English is limited and I don't speak Italian. I ended up going to a garage and putting someone there on the phone with her to sort out where she should come to get us!

Having said that, the apartment is very clean and the view from the balcony is very beautiful. I wouldn't say that is a totally private area that you stay in as the staircase is open and you can pretty much hear each other. Also the double bed in the bedroom is a very small double bed, such that I slept on the sofa instead. It is also an A frame apartment and you can easily bump your head on the ceiling if you aren't walking in the middle of the room.

The apartment is also far enough from Catania that you need to take a bus. Ivana was more than helpful with trying to go through the routes with us and offering to pick us up at one so we wouldn't have to deal with the transfer. If you are in Catania just for the day to see the sights this might not be the best option for you. We were only there for the day and then to catch our flights the next very early morning, so we didn't stay for our second night and stayed in the city instead. Having said that Ivana had offered to drive us to the airport, but we were just too nervous about being so far away given our early fight times.

Ivana and her cousin are delightful. If our circumstances had been different and we weren't trying to see Catania in one day and leave very early the next I'm sure we would have had a very different experience.