Insula - Apartments & Comfort in Ortigia

We loved this apartment for its location, gorgeous bed linen, comfy pillows, access to a laundry (complete with dryer and drying racks) and our wonderful host, Maria. She gave us so many great recommendations from restaurants to beaches to where to park. The apartment is on the ground floor and you can open the windows back and front for fresh air. Not a lot of natural light, but that didn't bother us as we were out all day! Great wifi which we were grateful for as our two phones aren't esim compatible (which we didnt find out until we left Australia!), so good wifi was imperative for us!

We found the bed to be quite small (its a standard double, so 140cm wide) and found ourselves rolling into the middle. A slightly larger bed would have made our stay 💯 perfect!

Posizione e disponibilità

L'unica pecca è la poca luce dalle finestre nella camera al piano terra

Appartamento stupendo, posizione comodissima per vicinanza al parcheggio talete, in 5 minuti a piedi si è al tempio di Apollo e in meno di 10 a piazza Archimede; nonostante la centralità la via è tranquillissima. L’host si è rivelata gentile e premurosa, abbiamo apprezzato al 100% i suoi consigli.

Nulla

The location is quite central, 4 minutes walk from the main square on the entrance to Ortigia, but the street is mostly quiet. Apartment is quite large, has all the tableware and even a wine fridge (didn't use it though). The host recommended a very good pizza restaurant.

(1) The property does not accept credit cards. Which is in contradiction to the information on the booking page which lists major credit cards as "Accepted payment methods" and later on the page it says "This property accepts the following forms of payment: American Express, Visa, Mastercard, Maestro". The host said they only accept bank transfer or cash (and the same information is listed in the instructions inside the apartment). I don't have an European bank account, and bank transfer from a bank in the US requires SWIFT and not IBAN, so I had to withdraw cash and arrange a meeting with the host. (2) The apartment is very dark (I stayed in the upstairs apartment, Casa Sabbia). The window in the bedroom is small and provide no light whatsoever because it's close to some wall. The balcony door in the main room is better but still not enough light for a room as it's also close to the building on the other side of the street. (3) Unfortunately, the typical problem of AirBnB-style properties - the towels are thin and relatively old, which means they start to smell after one or two uses. In many apartments that is mitigated by having more towels. In my case there was exactly one set of towels for the 4 days stay. A lot of stairs so if you have a heavy bag (as I had) it's a bit difficult - but that was expected. A few other smaller problems, but the review is already too long...