My wife and I, we stayed at Manuela's apartment in Rome in the beginning of May, 2019. We booked the apartment several months before coming to Rome . The process of booking ran smoothly. Information about the apartment was accurate and complete with details which helped us a lot to think about what to bring along because we had two 4-hour flights to Rome from Novosibirsk (Siberia) via Moscow. Manuela was online all the time and answered our questions in real time. So we felt good even before we went to Rome.
It was very kind of Manuela to arrange a transfer for us from the airport to the apartment. The driver waited for us at the exit from customs and helped with the luggage. So we skipped the line for the taxis and were driven to Rome fast. Actually using the transfer and later Uber black cars in Rome turned out to be quite comfortable because there are only black Mercedes and BMW with polite and helpful drivers and surprisingly affordable prices.
When we got to the apartment building Manuela greeted us downstairs and it was very nice of her because for us it is a little unusual system of stairs, floor numbers, flat numbers In Italy because we have a different system of numbering them in Russia.
The apartment met our expectations and even surpassed them. It has very functional outlay and artistic sense to it due to paintings and books on Rome and Art. It's good it is a penthouse. So nobody stomps above.
Manuela described every detail of how to stay in the apartment and use its different systems. She also welcomed us with some refreshments that was very good after a long journey.
The location of the apartment is very good. There is Ottaviano station of Rome Metro just 5-6 minutes away from the apartment. It's Line A, it runs through the old city of Rome and so it was very easy to get to Piazza del Popolo (Flaminia metro station) and Spanish Steps (Spagna metro station) just in a few minutes. It's also a direct line to Termini metro station, so it makes it easy to get to Via Nazionale (Reppublica metro station was temporarily closed), Colloseo and Compidoglio by foot or by transferring to Line B.
There are several bus stations very close to the apartment building too. But we like strolling because it helps to know the city better. So it was just 25-30 minutes walk to Piazza Navona and Piazza del Popolo through beautiful streets of Rome with many old churches, piazzas, buildings.
Nice thing was the apartment building is just a few hundred meters from the walls of Vatican but not too close to hear the hum of a line to Vatican Museums. it was very interesting to see imposing Vatican walls from the three balconies of the apartment. We just couldn't believe we lived near the heart of the entire Catholic Church.
Concerning food there are two supermarkets on the first street up from the apartment building, just 3 minutes away. They are Carrefour Express and Todi's with very fresh groceries, supply of local foodstuff, polite staff and everything what you need.
We are thankful to Manuela for her advising us on what to visit in Rome. Even though we had prepared ourselves we did not know about 16th century Villa Farnesina with its fresco decorations by Raphael and other artists of the epoch. So it was very nice of Manuela to tell us about it as well as about other places in Rome to visit. We liked Villa Farnesina a lot and certainly recommend you to visit it.
We can go on describing our 10-day experience of staying in Rome on end. And it was all very good! So thanks a lot to Manuela and we hope to come back to Rome some time in future.
Alexander and Tatyana (Academgorodok, Novosibirsk, Russia)