Let me start with the positives. Miimmo, the owner is a really nice host. His communication is quick and he will certainly give his expert advice on what to do. This trip was a delayed birthday celebration for a group of 14 of us. Three different families, with kids aged 3-17. The weather was fantastic. glorious sunshine and never below 32 degrees, so we got lucky in this respect.
So the main issues we had with the villa iare that the photos are outdated and they do not mirror the state of the Villa in its current state. In the pictues on the website, everything looks clean and relatively well kept and new. It was far from it.
Three people fell off collapsed chairs that were in an awful state. Two also fell through collapsed sun loungers. People were covered blue paint after sitting on a couple of rickety chairs. Most of the furniture was repaired poorly with silicone and ended up collapsing or breaking. The children's swings were rusty and did not have swings, therefore were not usable. The bedding when we arrived was dirty, with insects, hair and cobwebs in all the rooms. Much of the crockery was broken and deperately needs updating. Air conditioning in two of the rooms did not work so we were left sweltering at night. We did communicate this to Mimmo but he did not give a sufficient response so we were left to make do.
On top of all this, Mimmo accused us of breaking two umbrellas that were already broken and had holes in them. He charged us £180 to have them replaced when they were actually already broken and not usable. When we were checking out, he was more interested that we had to pay departure taxes for each person than listen to our frustrations. The tennis courts too were not usable in the night (best time to play due to the heat) because the floodlights did not work. When we arrived, the kids were desperate to go in the pool but the pool was totally green and not at all appealing. This was fixed for the following day but we lost a day's swimming.
So all in all, I would say the Villa is in desperate need of updating as there are so many things that need repairing or replacing. The photos need updating to reflect the Villa's current state. Despite all this we made the most of our stay and the trip to Taromina was a highlight. We ate at some very nice restaurants too. A car is essential though but the roads are very difficult to drive on. I think in hindsight, we would not have booked this Villa but we went on pre-pandemic reviews.