"Pros: The villa was incredible, especially the pool. It was immaculately clean and much bigger than the pictures show. We stayed as a group of friends and family with two young children. The owners were so helpful and did everything they could to ensure we had a great stay. Mazara del Vallo centre is beautiful, some lovely shops, restaurants and cafes, well worth a visit. We would definitely return to Villa Matilde. Cons: A car is definitely required as the nearest shop is a 20 minute drive away. The closest beach is within walking distance but it's rocky, so you need to walk a bit to find a nice sandy bit, again, with a car, there is a beautiful stretch of beach a 10 minute drive away. Mazara del vallo isn't a tourist hot spot, so shops/restaurants close during the day and sometimes don't open at all, so it's definitely worth checking before going anywhere!" ~Bekki

"Pros: We rented an apartment in a villa and had the surprise to find out that we had the entire villa for ourselves, with the garden, sitting area outside, parking inside the courtyard behind the gates that could be locked. Carolina is a wonderful host, waited for us at a pretty late hour ( about 22.00 as the flight landed late in the afternoon and we had to drive about 4 hours), showed and explained everything about the house and responded to every question by messages after that and was there in literally minutes to solve the minor issue when I was not able to turn on the washing machine. She was so thoughtful and put in the kitchen and bathroom everything we could possibly need and much more than we could imagine ( as a sunscreen of a very good brand, antiperspirant and of course 2 shower gels, 2 types of shampoo, lots of extra towels; in the kitchen we had an espresso machine with a full pack of capsules, the traditional Italian cafetiera moka in 3 sizes :)) and a full pack of ground coffee, also dry toasted bread and jam / Nutella so we practically could have had Italian breakfast with all that, also there was mineral water in the fridge). She gave us advice about things to see and do and offered us the umbrella and sun loungers for free at a nice lido in the area, for 2 days a week. Apartment is very big and looks nice. Mazara del Vallo was a nice surprise, a very beautiful old city with a mix of Italian-North African feel ( a result of about 2 centuries of Arab rule and Norman conquest afterwards), lots of restaurants to choose from, we didn't come even close to trying all of them. The place is also full of events, concerts, dance and other things happening at night in the squares of the old city. The city is clean and well kept, garbage is collected selectively practically each day except Sunday. The beaches in the area are nice, we liked the very fine sand on the well kept lido) and the rocky beach at Approdo del Saraceni Cons: Nothing really" ~Rodica