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Hi Jessica
Thanks for your message, yes we had a wonderful time! I'm in the process of tidying up some notes about Sicily that I made at the time and which I intend to put on my website, once I have done that I'll send you the link.
I liked Sicily although a lot of it is battered and many of the towns are unlovely at first sight. I liked the people too, in that part of the island they're wonderfully relaxed. I liked the climate around Siracusa a lot, although it was hot it wasn't humid and there was always a breeze to relieve the heat. We went to Taormina one day and found it much more humid and therefore more uncomfortable. That was the only day it rained too, but I guess being in the lee of Etna doesn't help.
There's enormous potential for tourism there but they need to cure their minuto flytipping problemo first. I did smell the scent of fresh lemons but I also smelt the smell of rotting garbage rather more often.
Getting around was easy, on the whole the roads are quiet and the traffic is fine (I usually drive like that anyway and in that part of Sicily they're nothing like as aggressive as the French - I gather it's different in Palermo and even in Catania I noticed they were different) but I felt the lack of a decent map very keenly. In England we have the Ordnance Survey 1:50000 series maps which show every road. There they seem to have nooothing which is any good. Amongst other things that made finding the smaller beaches tricky. For example I was trying to find the beach at Gelsominetto one day and couldn't, there are no signs off the coast road. I asked at the Agriturismo reception and the girl on the desk (who spoke adequate english) couldn't really explain how to find it but acknowledged there were no signs. Why, said I? Eeets Sicily says she with the appropriate gesture... No 2 daughter spotted it in the end, there was an unmarked turning on the right when heading South that led, via an underpass, to a very large car park hidden in the pines. The beach is, of course, on the left of the road when you're going South.....
The villa was fine on the whole but a little bit Sicilian ....
Main gripes were:
The cooker, the oven was mucky and the automatic ignition didn't work on either the hob or the oven. There was only one shelf as well, that makes things tricky especially as you couldn't use the bottom of the oven as it was gas fuelled and the bottom got extremely hot so you couldn't put anything on it.
The toaster didn't, it was impossible to plug it in as the plug didn't fit any of the sockets. I bought an adaptor which enabled me to plug it into a socket which, although adequate for testing purposes, wasn't in a useable position. The toaster didn't work. All this explained why it was so clean ....
The curtain rail that fell down and bonked no2 daughter on the head. She was cross but undamaged and we put it back but the reason it fell down was that it was never properly secured. A couple of screws would help. We told them about this as we didn't want anybody to get really hurt by it.
Vibrating window panes when the air conditioning was on. The air conditioning was very effective but the outside part of the split unit in the double bedroom caused vibration which was transmitted to the window glass. As the glass wasn't bedded in mastic it rattled against the beads. An old till receipt fixed that, once I'd worked out what was going on.
The fly screens on the windows are getting in need of maintenance as well, although if treated with care they're adequate (at the moment).
The kitchen lacked a pair of scissors or a chopping board and the cutlery and crockery was somewhat random. For example, there were plenty of glasses but only one wineglass and the corkscrew was broken. Well, OK, one can manage, I have a Swiss Army Knife, but (as Management pointed out) these things would not be tolerated in one's own kitchen and rather signify a lack of attention to detail....
On the plus side:
The position of the villa is fine, the elevated location means that it gets a breeze and it's very private and quiet. The big shady terrace is just what's needed on a hot day. There were no problems with midges, mosquitoes, vipers, wild boar, jellyfish, sharks or any other livestock other than the dogs which, once we got used to each other, weren't a problem. (Hmm, could be if you had a thing about dogs though). General standard of cleanliness for the villa was good and the linens were fine.
We liked the outside shower which was lovely to use as the water gets warmed in the header tank up the hill.
The rooms are all generous in size and the furniture is good.
The bathroom is well equipped and there was always plenty of hot water in the shower, which worked well.
The beds were very good, with excellent mattresses.
The pool was also excellent and the family spent a lot of time there enjoying the water and the shade and playing with the cats. Access to the pool was fine, just as you said, although the hill is perhaps a little steep in 30 degrees plus.
Breakfast at the Agriturismo was good and we found it very useful on the morning of the day after our arrival as we didn't have to rush out for rations.
The restaurant at the Agriturismo is also very good. We only really discovered
it in our second week but we were very impressed with their willingness to
allow us to customise the menu so that we got exactly what we wanted. Their
head waiter speaks quite good english, so this was a big
help.
Essentially the place was fine, they simply need to tidy up their act a bit with regard to the detail and replace a couple of domestic appliances.
Once I have the notes sorted I'll let you know. I want to do it because there is a lack of hard information about that bit of the world (yes, I do have two guidebooks but both of them major on church interiors and on Etna they don't give enough warning about the horrors of walking up it – we didn't, but travelled in style, but I saw many poor souls who did and shouldn't and probably wouldn't if only they'd known...)
Regards, and thanks for finding it for us.
RB
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