This place is literally in a palace with a great location. It is huge and beautifully furnished. The appliances all worked as advertised, the elevator was very appreciated, the beds were comfortable, and there was adequate hot water.
Although it was administered by an agency, they were quite responsive. (I told them that the guest shower drained slowly, and they were over in a few hours to work on it.) I had two different couples stay there while we were there, one after another, and they handled it fine (e.g. left extra towels and sheets for us). Check-in and check-out were smooth and easy.
It is not 100% perfect. MOST of the things I will mention are minor, but I want to be transparent to the people who come after me.
• There is a fair amount of street noise. Closing the shutters, the exterior windows, and the interior windows helps, but the street is paved with sampietrini and has lots of traffic on it. The apartment is also relatively close to the university, and while there were no bars right on its block, there are bars close by, and the way bars work in Bologna is that the patrons spill out of the bar to under the porticos. We were there in November; if you need the windows open in the summer, it will be worse. (We were not bothered by the noise, but I know some people are more sensitive.) Note that this is going to be a fact of life in a city: if you want to be central, it's going to be noisy. Consider what is most important to you.
• The dishwasher's cutlery basket had holes in three of the partitions had holes in the bottom. (I reported that, and they said they would get a new basket, but understandably, it could take a while to get a new one.)
• The sink does not have a little basket or grate to catch food (and, like just about every sink in Europe, does not have a garbage disposal). I mentioned this and the repair guy said that it was hard to get one because it is a non-standard size. This was not an issue for us, but it meant we were really careful about putting food in the sink. I worry that it might clog for someone less careful.
• The master bathroom does not have a shower, it has a tub with a handheld shower head. There is no bracket to hold the shower head, nor curtain to contain the spray if you don't always point it properly.
• The drying rack was only big enough for one load. That meant that you kind of had to use the dryer if you wanted to do more than one load.
• My spouse blew the circuit breaker once when running both the washing machine and electric kettle. Oops. (NB: This is not surprising for older buildings.)
On the plus side:
• The location is awesome. It is a very easy walk to downtown and an even easier walk to the University and its museums.
• The furnishings are comfortable. In particular, the living room was The Most Pleasant living room I have ever been in for hanging out: the sofas were comfortable, the right size, the right distance apart, there were also some armchairs, and the table was nearby. It was really, *really* pleasant. (NB: we didn't watch TV, I can imagine that wouldn't work as well. The room wasn't really set up for TV-watching.)
• The furnishings and decor are really beautiful. It felt good just to be in the space. I was particularly enchanted by the marble table and the terrazzo floors. (NB: The floors are HARD. They provided slippers; you might want to bring your own if you don't like wearing shoes inside.)
• The building is beautiful. I enjoyed walking down the stairs, even!
• The refrigerator was small by North American standards; the freezer even smaller.
• There is a washer and a dryer. That was extremely useful.
• The tub was quite comfortable, with a nice little touch I had never seen before: little handles on the rim to help you pull yourself out!
• There were plenty of dishes, although we rarely cooked. (Bologna is known as a "foodie" town. While we cooked 80% of the nights on our extended Italy trip, we almost never cooked in Bologna because the restaurants were so good.) (NB: Because we almost never cooked, the size of the fridge and freezer were not an issue. Mostly we kept snacks, drinks, and some breakfast food in the fridge. We once put ice cream in the freezer.)
• The apartment was quite livable for an extended stay. We stayed for three weeks, two weeks of which we had another couple with us.
• Throwing out garbage is a little bit complicated. (NB: they will tell you when the garbage pickup is. When they tell you, write it down! We forgot and had to ask them again.)
The bottom line: if you can afford it, don't mind a little street noise, and want to be centrally located, staying here is an awesome experience!