The stay was nice, but there were some mishaps. I'll start with the positives: the staff was welcoming and the place is beautiful and very calm. We visited Ariana's vinery which I highly recommend. It's a beautiful estate and the guide, Ermano, was very knowledgeable. As a goodbye gift, we got some lovely fresh oregano.
However, the roads to get there are very difficult (lots of potholes, drivers dangerously speeding) and riddled with trash. The house is nice but it's in the middle of the countryside and any good city is at least 30 mins away by car (again, driving in Sicily is not easy). Therefore, a lot of the activities revolve around the house. We felt pressured to have dinner at the house (every morning at breakfast, someone will ask you if you want to stay for dinner). Dinner prices are not cheap either. $45 for a six-course meal and $30 for a starter and the pasta dish. A couple times, we only wanted to have a salad for lunch, but that wasn't possible (or, we had to wait until 2:30pm when the snack service starts) at the normal lunch hour. Once, we waited about an hour and a half for a couple of salads as they had failed to mention they'd be serving them at 2:30. Another time, we had to remind the cook the menu mentionned we could order a salad at 6:45pm after he initially refused to make us one (the snack service ending at 7:30pm). Even at dinner, we sometimes had to wait 30 mins between the main dish and dessert. In the room, there is only one bottle of water and the tap water is not drinkable. They only fill it up once a day (or you can go ask the reception but it takes some time) to get more water. We ended up buying our own water from a store.
The house is very big but there isn't much privacy. You can pretty much hear everything going on in nearby rooms. The wifi connexion is not great. You'll get disconnected if you're not using your device and will have to log back in the system multiple times a day (per device) which is very annoying. The A/C seems old and will not cool down the room very much (maybe around 25-26 degrees celsius). There were a couple of stray dogs roaming around the house at all times (there are lots of stray animals in this region) which was sometimes unconfortable, especially when they were barking in the middle of the night.
When it's time to check out, make sure you check your bill carefully. We were charged for two six-course meals we did not have (we had only two courses) and a bottle of wine when we only had a glass. The employee kindly corrected the mistakes, though.
Overall, we were disappointed and left a couple of days early (we were reimbursed for the nights we did not stay which I very much appreciated). We felt pressured to buy meals, drink wine, and overall consume at the hotel. And, the region is nice, but the bad roads and trash everywhere create a bad environment and stressful driving conditions not favorable to a relaxing vacation.