Staying with Rossella recalls the early days of Airbnb: the experience of living at a real person’s house in a mysterious new city.

Her home is a rambling Mediterranean apartment with fabulously high ceilings, a charming approach to hot water and insulation, flowery ceramic tiles, and lots of string instruments. On clear days, you can see the lower slopes of Mt. Etna from the balcony. It is perfectly located for exploring Catania on foot: important things like the railway station, multiple daily servings of pistachio ice cream, a street blasted out of lava, back alleys of every hue and character, and the seacoast are all minutes away. You can even walk in from the airport, like we did with my wife: it’s barely more than an hour away on foot.

Rossella herself is a lovely host: she speaks good English, she’s available when needed but doesn’t babysit you. I had a really wonderful time and I would definitely consider staying again.