Being welcomed to Rome for the first time by Guilia, Susanna, and their mother Marina felt like being welcomed into the city by three wonderful relatives who, despite being busy people, stopped at nothing to make our stay comfortable and fun. They did what any good hosts should be ready to do -- communicating efficiently before our arrival, helping us get our bearings once we were finally there, offering recommendations for things to do and places to eat, providing us with accommodations as enchanting, if not MORE enchanting, than their online listing would suggest, and frequently checking in with us to ensure we had everything we needed. But there was more to their hospitality than any kind of checklist could account for; my mother (with whom I was traveling) and I agreed it was something like SPIRIT (which we fancy ourselves to be pretty intuitive about!). We were thrilled, no doubt, with all the accoutrements of our stay -- amazing location, amazing bed, amazing shower, amazing breakfasts -- but would have sacrificed the amazingness of any of these for the amazingness of our hosts. Blissfully, we didn't have to.