We chose the apartment primarily due to its close location to the home of our son and due to the space provided in light of our need to isolate for 5 days in accordance with Italian travel regs for visitors from the UK. Ernesto’s responses to our questions were very speedy, which was much appreciated. The apartment on the 8th floor is spacious and as described in the listing. We were, however, surprised that the photos were quite old and did not depict the addition of air-conditioning in all rooms except the kitchen and bathroom. This needs to be added to enhance the listing! The apartment block is above the metro stop ‘Ponte Lungo’ with direct access to the city centre. Handy convenience stores and restaurants are prominent in the area. The lift is quite small with a loading limit of just 225kg. The apartment is very secure with multiple dead-locks on the door, which is reassuring. Wi-Fi is of a good band with and we were able to happily stream video with no problems. The bed (the 1 we used!) was comfortable and there was more than sufficient storage for our 12 night stay. The balcony, whilst very narrow, provided good views of the area and we enjoyed standing on it watching the world go by. The air-conditioning pumps condensed water into 2 buckets on the balcony, which need to be emptied into the toilet or sink. It is easy to forget this!
On the negative side, we were a little concerned at the depth of cleanliness in both kitchen and bathroom. My wife spent an hour cleaning the shower cubicle as this was not to our liking. The shower door did also not close properly and the tiles and grouting need a deep-clean, which we were not able to do. The kitchen also needed a more thorough clean and really needs a replacement microwave and toaster. Some of the chopping boards and other equipment are in need of replacements. The windows are only single-glazed (or at least give that impression) and have metal frames. As such there is little noise reduction from the busy street and we had to get used to the motorbikes etc racing up the main road at all hours. On 2 occasions, we had issues with noisy neighbours but Ernesto was able to contact one of the owners and no reoccurrence was experienced thereafter. Small red cockroaches are common in flats during the summer in Rome and we also had a couple of incidences. Whilst there are traps in both kitchen and bathroom we had to use spray to control them. This was not such a big issue.
Overall, we were relatively happy in the apartment but a little more care in the areas I have highlighted would seriously enhance the appeal. As I mentioned before, the ‘host’ was friendly and accommodating to the best of his abilities.