Marta’s place was really well located and very spacious and modern. It was well equipped and check in was smooth, Marta met us and even managed to save a rare parking space for us which was really helpful. The location above the market is fantastic, there are lots of good places to eat or buy food from nearby and it is an easy walk to all of the other parts of Ortigia. The sea views from the kitchen are also really lovely.
The flat was clean but we did unfortunately have a problem with ants while we were there. I wouldn’t have mentioned it because it happens sometimes in hot countries and I know Marta was planning to get it treated after we left (we had small children with us so we agreed that it was best not to put any chemicals down while we were there) but we didn’t feel that Marta handled the issue very well. We noticed a few ants in the kitchen on the evening we arrived but weren’t too concerned about it but by the next evening they were much more widespread (on the sofa, in the bathrooms and some on the floor in the bedrooms). We had kept the place very clean in the 24 hours that we’d been there. I messaged Marta including some photos, she said she’d never had the issue before and we agreed not to treat it while we were staying. By the next morning the ants had gotten into our baby’s cot (it was a Baby Bjorn one that sits close to the floor). I asked if it was possible to just have someone come and clean the place again as I was hoping that the floors being cleaned etc might help minimise the problem for our last night. Marta arranged for her cleaner to come that morning while we were out and I was fine with that as it was the best that could be done in the circumstances. Unfortunately around lunchtime I received a message from Marta telling me that her cleaner had been unable to find any ants, so she had taken out the rubbish but not done any cleaning and that if I had wanted extra cleaning I should have given her 24 hours notice (i.e suggesting that I’d made up a story about ants to get extra cleaning for free). She also claimed that there was “a lot of rubbish” which was not true, there were two small bags of food waste tied neatly in the bin (we had left it rather than taking it out as we knew the cleaner was coming) and some separate plastic recycling in the relevant bin. It was really upsetting and insulting to effectively be called a liar, particularly given that I had sent her photos, and when we got back to the apartment there were still plenty of ants (I have no idea how the cleaner could not have seen them and I sent Marta more pictures and videos that afternoon to show her that the cleaner was wrong but she never apologised for implying that I was lying or even admitted that the ants might be there). The whole episode was just strange because we hadn’t asked for anything other than an extra clean to be done, very politely, and I thought we’d been very tolerant considering that there were ants in our baby’s cot in the bedroom. And the most annoying thing was that we still had to live with the ants for the final night without any improvement because there hadn’t even been any cleaning done.
So overall, the apartment is great and I assume by now that the ants have been treated as Marta will have found them if she has taken the time to look herself. The way Marta dealt with us on this issue also doesn’t seem to be in line with other reviews of her hospitality and how she seemed before the cleaner went to the apartment. Given that I would recommend staying there, but we did unfortunately leave with a slightly bad feeling about it all.