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.
