Loved Ilaria's place. She responded right away to our request to stay and the apartment itself is spacious, quiet, and lovely. Fantastic too to stay in a real neighborhood and get a glimpse into Roman life; so much more interesting and pleasant than a hotel in the tourist zones.

Only quibbles we had were that Fatima, the woman who met us and let us in, did not speak English, and we do not speak Italian. We did ok until we went out and tried to get back in the apartment and couldn't get the key to work. Fortunately a very sweet neighbor came to our rescue. (And to be clear: Fatima was seemingly perfectly sweet and kind, in Italian.) We also had trouble calling a cab, again due to our not knowing Italian (I succeeded in calling; no idea what they said when they answered.) That's not Ilaria's fault, obviously. It would be great though if the instructions in the house were more explicit about the keys and the cabs.

These are quibbles though. We loved staying at Ilaria's place and loved Rome, its unbearable beauty, its sweetly inscrutable contradictions, its warm gracious people. Go, and go now.