Exquisite Holiday Villa, spacious terrace and pool in the Sicilian countryside

The Villa was lovely and set in a very peaceful location but near enough to the local town (car required). Only 8 miles to the beach but mountain roads so a slow journey but very enjoyable with spectacular scenery. Some very nice local restaurants and a local small supermarket. Only problem we had was that there was no hot water for the entire holiday. They came to fix it on the day that we were leaving. Apart from tat everything else was great.

Fabio (Property Owner) answered all questions we had in a very timely manner. He is very personable and a pleasure to speak with. The villa pictures on line were a good representation, but even the villa is even more beautiful in person! Stunning views from each level of the villa and the pool was wonderful, clean and refreshing! All the bedrooms were spacious with plenty of storage space. The open concept of the kitchen, eating area and family room were very spacious and flowed very nicely making you feel right at home! The outdoor covered eating area was also wonderful to enjoy! No internet problems. The propery managers, Luciano and Rosetta (they speak English and Italian) live in the town and greet you upon arrival at the villa to hand over the key and complete a walkthrough of the villa with you. They are such a sweet and kind couple and so accommodating answering your calls immediately! I look forwrd to staying at the villa again and a great big thank you to Fabio, Luciano and Rosetta for making us feel the comforts of home! Lisa

Lovely house and location. Very clean and well maintained inside and out with an excellent pool which was kept clean each day by Luciano and Rosetta. The pool and the air conditioning were both very welcome in the recent heat wave.

Overall we loved the 'idea' of this property, it really is in a lovely authentic part of Sicily, surrounded by lovely landscapes and with great potential to be a family friendly villa. Fabio was responsive at all times and pre-stay communication was great. In reality, the property hasn't been maintained as well as it should be to be listed as 'exquisite' any longer. All the sunbeds, all the shade canopies, every single bathroom cupboard, one shower upstairs and many of the bedside lights are broken. The property clearly hadn't been cleaned properly before we checked in, as there was a used water bottle in one of the children's rooms, the sheets in two of the double bedrooms were stained, one had dust/sand in the sheets indicating the bedclothes weren't clean. The BBQ outside hadn't been emptied or cleaned. The downstairs bedrooms and the child's bedroom upstairs are not air-conditioned, something which wasn't clear in the posting, in fact the downstairs bedroom smells quite damp. Downstairs, almost all available storage in the bedrooms is packed with linens and towels (great except limits space to hang clothes) but all smelt so musty they had to be washed before being used. Overall the villa was not as pictured in the listing, with everything looking more grubby/worn. On the day we arrived, we were greeted at the property by Luciano and Rosetta's daughter and friends who couldn't speak any English at all who tried their utmost to show us how things worked but the language barrier lead to lots of gaps (i.e. what to do with all your recycling/rubbish, what to do if the electric suddenly trips or the pool filter stops working) - an info pack covering all this would have avoided so many texts/calls to Rosetta (the only person who can speak English). Finally, and slightly weirdly, they asked if we minded the dog who was there (we said we didn't thinking the dog belonged to one of them), and they drove off leaving the dog there, who proceeded to jump up at anyone with any food and follow the children around the pool begging. We had to call Rosetta to ask her to take it away, as it was annoying us, turns out it belonged to a distant neighbour up the mountain?! All these issues were flagged to Rosetta and Luciano but it's unclear whether it's really within their remit to sort them. I think perhaps with a little investment and maintenance this villa could be back up to the standard you would expect for the price but currently it's not quite there.