We stayed at Lisa’s for a whole month and we absolutely loved the apartment and the surroundings…for the most part.
Let me start with the upsides: the apartment is in the heart of Rione Sanita, a charming up-and-coming neighborhood with pretty much everything you need within walking distance: shops, restaurants, bars, pastry shops, even fresh fish! The apartment is also HUGE (far bigger than it appears in the photos) and you can tell that the owners put a lot of soul into making it feel homely. Lisa is also a very friendly and responsive host.
However, you will not have access to the entire apartment, especially if there are only two of you. We booked this apartment for a few reasons: we work and travel, so we need a dedicated space to work and good internet. We also loved that it had two bathrooms, a washing machine (mandatory for long stays), and a dishwasher.
Sadly, we didn’t get to enjoy too many of these things:
-- One of the bathrooms was locked upon our arrival -- no explanation. We got one much later: the big, fancy bathroom in the photos is generally closed when there are only two guests because it’s fragile. We only got to see it because there was a leak in the smaller bathroom (a neighbor came to the house and complained water was pouring from his ceiling) and we were moved to the big one. Overall, we never had access to two bathrooms simultaneously during our month-long stay.
-- The dishwasher was broken.
-- We had some cold mornings because the toilet in the big bathroom had no seat. Our host explained that it’s a very expensive automatic seat that has to be ordered in advance, so we’ll have to make do without it. We did, but, oh, boy, was that toilet cooold!
-- The mattress in the master bedroom is old, torn, and stained.
Overall, the apartment could use some renovations. It’s an old building (a former palace transformed into a condominium) and we loved its charm. But when it rains, it rains indoors too and there are areas where the walls are moldy. If you know you have respiratory issues, find another place. For short stays and healthy lungs, it’s ok.
My main issue with our stay was the communication, though. One day, we found ourselves with unexpected guests: Manuela, the co-host who also handled cleaning, simply entered the apartment with no heads-up. I just heard someone calling my name from INSIDE the house. To be fair, she was with the plumber, looking for the leak mentioned above.
Still, we’ve never had this happen to us. No other host just showed up inside the house with absolutely no notice, not even a knock on the door.
This was also the day when Manuela kicked us out of the leaky bathroom AND the adjoining office space (the children’s room in the photo). She said we can’t use the bathroom anymore and so she MUST close the room leading to it as well (???). No debate, she just pushed the desk into a dark, drafty corridor. It took almost a week of pleading and swearing we won’t touch the adjoining bathroom via WApp to get her to come back and open the room so we can work in decent conditions.
Similarly, cleaning was supposed to happen once a week, but it only happened twice in our almost 5-week stay. This wouldn’t have been a problem normally, but we weren’t allowed to use the washing machine anymore. So when Manuela didn’t show up and didn’t bother to let us know she wasn’t coming, we had a big problem with our tidy whities ;).
Since she rarely responded to WApp messages within 24 hours, I did a ton of hand-washing and eventually let her know that we can’t wait for her anymore and that we were going to use the washing machine ourselves.
TL;DR: communication is a problem. I completely understand that plumbing issues can happen anytime. But bullying a guest out of a room with scarce explanations and no time to realize what’s happening should never happen. Moreover, it’s important to note that you won’t have access to the entire place. I would have been perfectly fine using a single bathroom after the plumbing accident, I wouldn’t have even mentioned it in the review if we had had access to both in the beginning (as depicted in the photos and the description).