Maria is the nicest hostess! She was warm, funny, down-to-earth, extremely patient with our MANY questions, thought of every detail, shared about her life, was very generous, and she helped us experience some "ordinary" life in Rome. She makes her guest feel like family.
Her home is exceptionally clean and bigger than it appeared from the photos - what is shown is the area used by her guests but there is also the area where she resides. The apartment is on the ground floor in a dignified, locked building where Maria has lived since she was a baby.
Although she knows limited English Maria was very adept with Google Translator on her phone and it worked well for all of us.
We especially enjoyed Maria's patience with us when we asked how to use a Moca Pot. She gave us a detailed demonstration and showed us the family's pre-WWII design coffee-maker. We liked the coffee so much that she helped us find a local store where we could buy our own to take home and she donated the coffee!
The neighborhood/convenience
The neighborhood is not particularly pretty and it is not in the Trastavere area that is so much admired and discussed. (That area is only a couple of stops away on the tram line 8, and the tram line is just outside the apartment.) But we used the room for sleeping, resting, washing clothes, and then eating in the lovely garden patio.
It is just down the street from the Trastavere train station which is so convenient to the airport. Or two stops (as I recall) to the Vatican!
The major drawback is the time/distance from the major historic area. It is easy to ride the tram but it takes 15 or 20 minutes maybe? - long enough that it is not convenient to pop back to drop off packages, shed extra clothes or to rest before heading out again.
It also was a distance from the charming and/or recommended restaurants (although, again, only a couple of tram stops to Trastavere). We found two places down the street (near ChickenHut) that we liked, one restaurant with German subtitles on the menu and the other a smaller take-out place geared toward healthy pizza bought by the kg. Maria later told us her friend (a couple of doors away from her) in 'the bread shop' sells pizza but we didn't get a chance to try it out.
All in all, we very much enjoyed staying at Maria's home. Thank you, Maria!