We arrived in Siracusa on the back of a rare thunderstorm so were a little underwhelmed on first impressions of the area, which as others have said, is a little scruffy, though it was also the first day of the new waste disposal arrangements, which didn't help. However, once the sun came out and the longer we stayed, the more we learned to appreciate its rustic charm and quiet environment. There was no issue parking out front, and we could have parked inside the villa grounds had we so wished. The villa itself has been renovated very tastefully, it was quite a contrast to step inside the villa grounds. Everything was nice, clean and modern. The apartment had most standard fixtures you would expect and benefited from good Wifi and air-conditioning. Access to a washing machine was very helpful as it allowed us to get away with just hand luggage on the plane, despite staying almost 2 weeks in Sicily. The kitchen only had gas hobs and no grill/oven, which restricted some of our culinary plans, but we made do. Our apartment was one of the 2 apartments in the middle of the villa so we were initially disappointed to find that we did not have the private patio we expected, which was an important consideration for us when booking. Only Casa Ulivo and Casa Finca d'India have their own private patios around the back of the villa, but this wasn't apparent from the generic photos, unless you closely studied and compared all 4 apartments. Casa Arancio and Casa Limone have non-exclusive use of the patio area in front of the villa, but this is by the front gate so would be interrupted by other guests coming and going. Fortunately they were very friendly so this didn't pose any issue. We also made use of the sun loungers which we placed by the side of the villa, in the shade of the lemon and fig trees. We were also disappointed by the absence of bikes promised in the listing and that BBQs seem to be prohibited by city byelaws, according to Francesco. Both these aspects should be corrected in the listing, as again it somewhat dashed our expectations. The location of the villa is good, in a quiet dead-end street, so no passing traffic, and within 15 minutes walk of the beautiful island of Ortigia (or a little longer in the heat!). We walked there most days and spent a lot of time sightseeing, going to the daily market and visiting the many bars & restaurants. Particular favorites were the delicatessen Caseificio Borderi, the Sunset Bar and the restaurant aLevante. There are also some small free beaches dotted around the island and the stylish Zefiro Lounge Bar has its own bathing platform and loungers/umbrellas. These were expensive but the food and drinks were in keeping with Ortigia pricing and they did a very good frozen strawberry daiquiri! It was also a similar length walk to the archeological park and Greek...