My husband, our 3 and 6 yr old daughters and I had a fantastic stay at Villa Ruta at the beginning of April. Probably partly because Giuseppe and his family have lived there and obviously enjoyed it themselves, it is fully kitted out with everything you could need and more: cooking utensils, outside wood burning pizza oven, barbeque, television, swimming equipment etc. Big television, peaceful at night, the only negative about the house would be that the mattresses were too hard for our tastes. Although our children were too young to use them, there are bikes to use, exercise and diving equipment in the garage, for example. Gorgeous pool, that I enjoyed so much, even if it wasn't always the warmest weather or water. Warm enough for us! Again, maybe better for slightly older children because the shallow end is too deep for little ones to stand, but it didn't stop ours from loving it once they had arm bands etc. Great location for visits to Noto, Modica, and Syracuse, wonderful coastline 2 mins away, with lots of restaurants all along the coast, big supermarket 15 mins away, small one 2 mins away.
What we were particularly impressed by was the attentiveness and generosity of Giuseppe as a host. We arrived to a complementary table of bread, ricotta, olives etc, a bottle of wine. Although he's in New York, he answered all our queries immediately and thoroughly, and went out of his way to accommodate us. Our youngest daughter was ill, and he was quick to make arrangements to have a doctor brought to us if need be. Although it wasn't needed, it was a real relief to know it was possible.