Catania holiday ski townhouse rental, Mount Etna with walking, beach/lake nearby, log fire, disabled access, air con, rural retreat, DVD

Print this pageEmail to friend

Mount Etna Townhouse (townhouse)

Home description

This holiday home is a spacious and beautifully furnished house dating back to the 19th century, located in the village of Nicolosi, 700 metres above sea level on the south flank of Mount Etna, and only 15 mi of the coast and of Catania's sandy beach. This is a cozy and comfortable house in any season, suitable for long-term rental if you want to spend your winter holidays in a warm country.

Lounge and dining room from N wall	Lounge and dining room from SE corner
Winter: Etna Sud Rifugio Sapienza ski resort and excursion centre,15km N of this house

To see more photos please visit http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/45327

The Sicily region

What can be said about Sicily that hasn't been already told? The east of Sicily is not just your typical sun and sea holiday place: it hosts at least one piece of heritage for any kind of civilization that has ever developed in the west of Europe. Being here allows you to experience with your own eyes the entire history of the western world from its origins! Namely ancient Greek and Roman heritage, medieval towers and castels, elegant Baroque architecture are within one hour drive in Catania, Acireale, Taormina and all around Mount Etna, as well as ceramics factories and exhibitions at Caltagirone. Siracusa and the Roman "Villa del Casale" at Piazza Armerina can be reached in a hour and half drive, whereas Agrigento, "Valle dei Templi and Baroque Ragusa Ibla, Scicli and Modica can be reached in two hours. Modica is also famous for a special way to make chocolate with no milk (Aztec style). And then there is the wide variety of landscape Sicily displays, according to season, county and sometimes mood: bare and dry in the summer, green and moody in Spring and Autumn, vivid and clear in Winter.

Catania / Mount Etna area

NICOLOSI.
The village of Nicolosi is small (5000 people), but lively even at night: there are bars, pubs and quality restaurants which stay open all the year round. Luckily enough, shopping malls have not made it this uphill, so you do your shopping in small village shops, where you can find local food and buy directly from producers. You especially find local cheese, fruits and vegetables (the south flank of Mount Etna is a very fertile land!). This village is surrounded by pine forests and cold lavas (sciare, in Sicilian) covered in broom: it is nice to walk and hang around the area as there is no heavy traffic. Bicycles can be provided upon request.
MOUNT ETNA.
This house is located 12 mi south of the excursion centre at the Etna Sud ski resort, also known as Rifugio Sapienza. This is the starting point for all the excursions to the top of Mount Etna: you can choose between taking a pre-arranged tour (1 or 3 hours), or hiring a guide to do some trekking on the upper mountain trails. You can also choose between reaching Rifugio Sapienza by car or by public transportation (go in the early morning, back in the early afternoon): coaches leave every day from the main square of the village of Nicolosi, a few yards away of this house.
If you are planning a short trip to this area of Sicily, also make sure your stay includes at least one Sunday, so that you have the opportunity to visit a town festival in one of the small villages all around Mount Etna or in coastal towns: you will discover that there is A LOT more to Sicily and Sicilians than what you can generally read on the foreign press, starting from a warm, authentic and totally unbiased attitude towards strangers. There are many small festivals in any season, some are Patron Saint Feast days, others focus on a special food (generally octopus or swordfish along the coast, mushrooms, wine or honey inland). Each festival comes with colourful fireworks shows and with small markets, where you can buy local products for less.
SPENDING YOUR WINTER IN SICILY.
This area of Sicily enjoys a nice climate all the year round: never too hot, never too cold. Day temperatures go easily above 15°C also in December, and when it's sunny even above 20°C: the greenhouse effect is not so bad down here, after all!
Etna Sud (aka Rifugio Sapienza) is one of the three ski resorts we have in Sicily: this is located 12 mi north of this house. Our island is not generally promoted as a winter location place, but we have snow on Mount Etna since early December through to late March, above 1000 metres (about 3000 feet). If you want to mix your cultural trip to Sicily with some skiing fun, here you can do it, the road climbing to Etna Sud from the village of Nicolosi is very well kept and coaches go all the year round. Moreover, a lot happens down here in Winter: wonderful exhibitions of traditional Nativity Scenes at Caltagirone during Christmas break, the sumptuous Feast of Saint Agatha downtown Catania in February, two big Carnivals at Acireale and Misterbianco, both less than half a hour drive from this house.
SWINGING CATANIA.
When you get tired of village life, Catania is just 7 mi down the flank of Mount Etna. This is a city of 700 hundred thousand and a university town with a vibrant nightlife all the year round. Some find this city chaotic: when you live on a volcano, you definitely have lots of energy! Catania is also interesting during the day: apart from shopping and typical sweet food, there are two huge colourful markets held every day that you do not want to miss!
SUMMER HOLIDAYS IN THIS AREA.
If you still want to do your "classic" summer sun and sea holiday in Sicily, you are not far from the coast: the nearest beach is a huge, sun-drenched, sandy beach just south of Catania, called "La Playa": this is only 20 km away from this house. You can choose either a free entrance beach where you can use the beach equipment you find in the house or a small resort where you have umbrellas and chairs for rent and any sort of facility you need to spend a whole day at the beach in a very comfortable way. More pebbly and rocky beaches are along the coast between Catania and reknown Taormina, starting from a distance of 25 km of this house: Acitrezza will be specially interesting for snorkeling, diving, and sea bottom watching. This means that you can stay in this specific hillside area and still enjoy a beach holiday, switching from a beach to another according to day and mood, and most importantly coming back to your little piece of Paradise out of coastal hell for dinner and sleep your nights enjoying a much cooler climate than along the coast. Peak beach season starts mid June and goes on until the end of September. We don't, but people coming from colder countries generally find themselves at ease on our beaches from mid April through to early November.

How to get there

FLIGHTS to Catania CTA: All major companies plus Airmalta from London Gatwick, Geneva, Munich and Casablanca. Low cost flights available with Transavia from Paris and Amsterdam, and with Windjet from Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Prague, Krakow, and Barcelona. Several tour operators have charter flights from Toulouse, Nice, Lyon, Nantes and Paris: check with your local travel agent!
FLIGHTS to Palermo PMO, 2 hours drive: Clickair from Barcelona, Ryanair from London Stansted
FERRIES. The cheapest ones go from the port of Salerno, just south of Naples, to Messina, one hour drive. Long distance ferries also exist between Genoa and Palermo. Check http://www.ferriesonline.com/

CAR RENTALS. Check the website of Catania's airport for a comprehensive list of car rentals operating in Sicily: http://www.aeroporto.catania.it/page.php?cPath=0_12_20&id_page=37〈=eng

CAR-FREE HOLIDAY. This is possible here: you have everything you need within walking distance (except discos or late night bars). You can use public transportation from/to downtown Catania and from/to the "Etna Sud Rifugio Sapienza" excursion centre to the upper trails of Mount Etna. A local guide with a license and own car offers you a discount on his rates for day trips by car, if you want to see more of the east of Sicily.

Activities near Catania

Facilities

Further details indoors:
Some of the original furniture dating back to mid 19th century has been restored. All the other pieces of furniture are wooden or wickerwork, sofas are in leather and the internal doors have been hand-decorated by a local craftsman. Two double bedrooms sleep 4. An attic living-room can be used as an extra bedroom for up to 2 adults or 3 kids. The attic room is the only part of the house which is not on ground floor. Central heating and a hot water gas boiler make this holiday house cozy and comfortable like your home even in Winter, which is not the norm for holiday homes in Sicily.

Further details outdoors:
This house develops all along a spacious courtyard, which is about 100 square yard large and totally private. This is totally invisible from the street: you can stay in the open air all year round and have your own privacy. You can also use a roof level terrace which is in the sun the whole day. The well in the middle of the courtyard is sealed for kids safety.

Further details

Welcome pack provided on arrival. Extra services and activities available at special rates.

Conditions

This is a self-catering vacation rental, run directly by owners. Rates are always all inclusive and for the entire house, never per room: you are not going to share this house with strangers.
Please specify how many adults and how many kids in your request of information.
Down payment due to confirm your booking is about 25-30% of rental fee, via bank transfer, refundable until one month prior to arrival date. Security deposit for this house is 300 euro for weekly rentals, 500 euro for long term ones.
Sorry, this is strictly no smoking except that on the roofterrace / in the courtyard.

Rental rates

Prices for group size 4
Period	From	To	Weekly	Nightly rate		Minimum  stay
				Weekday	Weekend
	1 Nov 09	20 Dec 09	300£ 273	0-	0-	3 Weeks
	20 Dec 09	10 Jan 10	800£ 727	0-	0-	1 Week
	10 Jan 10	30 Jan 10	300£ 273	0-	0-	3 Weeks
	30 Jan 10	3 Apr 10	700£ 636	0-	120109	2 Nights
	3 Apr 10	18 Apr 10	750£ 682	0-	0-	1 Week
	18 Apr 10	3 Jul 10	700£ 636	0-	120109	2 Nights
	3 Jul 10	28 Aug 10	750£ 682	0-	0-	1 Week

Prices for group size 2
Period	From	To	Weekly	Nightly rate		Minimum  stay
				Weekday	Weekend
	1 Nov 09	20 Dec 09	300£ 273	0-	0-	3 Weeks
	20 Dec 09	10 Jan 10	700£ 636	0-	0-	1 Week
	10 Jan 10	30 Jan 10	300£ 273	0-	0-	3 Weeks
	30 Jan 10	3 Apr 10	600£ 545	0-	10091	2 Nights
	3 Apr 10	18 Apr 10	650£ 591	0-	0-	1 Week
	18 Apr 10	3 Jul 10	600£ 545	0-	10091	2 Nights
	3 Jul 10	28 Aug 10	650£ 591	0-	0-	1 Week

NB: Prices may be subject to change at the advertiser's discretion.

Weekly rates are all inclusive.

Groups of 4 adults plus 1, 2 or 3 kids may refer to rates for 4 persons (kids will sleep in the attic bedroom).

Couples with one kid may refer to rates for 2 persons.

Guestbook for Mount Etna Townhouse

"This trip was fantastic for us and the situation of this villa is the best ! Quite area, nice village and fresh to slep during the summer ! Everything is very close !" by Clo et Eric from France.

"Nous avons passé une agréable semaine dans la maison de Luca à Nicolosi. La maison est très grande, fonctionnelle et très agréable. Le quartier est calme tout en étant près des commerces et restaurants. Depuis la rue on aperçoit l'etna et la fumée qui s'en dégage. Luca est très serviable et disponible. Nous gardons un excellent souvenir de notre séjour dans "la maison de l'Etna" by Agnes et Thierry from France.

"Superbe villa au pied de l'etna. trés comfortable. aucun reproche tout était trés agréable. accueil irréprochable et je conseille vivement cette adresse" by Christian from France.

"We spent a lovely time in Nicolosi in May. The villa is great and ideally located, quiet yet surprisingly close to plenty local shops: great Sicilian take away, cake and ice cream shop... For us the lay out the villa was excellent (we have a 3 year old son) as most of it is on the ground floor and there is a big patio in which our little boy could play safely. Luca was very helpful and had even provided a little tricycle, ball and building blocks for our son which was great! (Thank you Luca). Nicolosi is a a great base to explore Taormina, Syracusa and of course the Etna volcano (you can actually see it smoking from the street!)" by Isabelle and Denis from the UK.

"We spent a gorgeous holiday in January in Sicily! The house is wonderful, warm and comfortable, the village of Nicolosi is charming. We visited the Volcano and the surroundings. We had a lot of fun skiing on Aetna, an incredible experience, going down on the snow but with a breathtaking view over the sea. We have also visited Syracuse and other cities in the East of Sicily. All was perfect. It was our first "Kein Problem" "no problem at all" holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" by Kerstin from Germany.

"If you're thinking about visiting Sicily and Mount Etna then I highly recommend staying in Luca's house in Nicolosi. It's a lovely place to stay, with its own little courtyard and a covered well. It's minutes away from the shops, bars, restaurants and café's, and from here you can take a really enjoyable drive up to the Rifugio Sapienza on Mount Etna from where you can get a cable-car up to the top of the volcano. The house is bright, clean and beautifully furnished, and Luca is incredibly hospitable. Go and see for yourself!" by Sarah and Kevin from the UK.

"This has been our vacation place for many years: we have travelled a lot, but we have never found another place where you can get so quiet and appeased like in this house. Starting from Summer 2008, we have decided to open it to others and we hope that our guests will enjoy the same feelings that we do". Your hosts.

Availability

See below for next 9 months' availability - to see the next 24 months click here

Send Enquiry

To contact this advertiser please visit: http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/45327

Contact details for the advertiser of home 45327
Name:	Luca Schillaci
Mobile:	+39 333 4206917
Be aware of time-zones Please mention Holiday Lettings when contacting this advertiser
Languages:
Contact Notes: First contact pref. via e-mail, any time
Holidaymaker FAQs
Advertiser joined: Jun 2008