Alessandro’s apartment was very clean, spacious and illuminated. On arrival Alex met us outside, greeted us and helped us with our things to the apartment. He was very friendly and welcoming and asked us to reach out if we had any problems. He kept in touch and responded very quickly via messaging.
The location was perfect for us and it seemed we were in the nice part of town. I did discover some more rougher sides nearby and was actually relieved to be located in what seemed the nicer part of town
There were a couple of things that made my stay quite uncomfortable. When I read the section under kitchen it stated ‘Oven’ but there was no oven, so my partner and I could not reheat food in a microwave or oven. There was a hob, however pizza and other foods could not be heated on the hob.
There was no electric kettle. I messaged Alex before my stay to tell him I was staying with my 7 month old baby (at the time) and was checking that the place and its contents was suitable for a family. There was no electric kettle so several times in a day was spent boiling water in a pot on the hob. It released white cloudy residue and we had not choice but to use this water to make our baby milk. I think it was the pan. I messaged Alex about the kettle, his mum came to show us the pots they had in the kitchen but that was about it.
Secondly, the apartment is not child friendly. Luckily, I have a 7 month old who is not mobile as yet. The fourth floor location and the balcony which is a lowered down thin, space out gate makes it quite dangerous for any toddler to stay in. I have pictures. The building is very high and Alex’s apartment is at the very top. Its ok for adults only but I would not recommend any family with young children to stay here.
On the penultimate day of my stay, Alex sent me a message to tell me he had entered the apartment when I was not present as I had left the air con on. I was rather taken aback by this as I would have liked to have received a call or text before. Alex did say it was an emergency as water was dripping outside as a result. Though I did not fully understand the connection with the air-con.
If I could add a note to any brits or Uber users elsewhere that consider staying in this part of town. Getting a reasonably priced taxi to and from the airport and the central station was hard as most tried to rip us off, some even harass you at the airport and central station. The local cab app, a bit like Uber, we used was useless after around 7pm as most taxi drivers didn’t respond and would rather do a cash only basis so that they could quote random prices! Driving by cabbies here is also crazy even with newborns on board !!!