Bruno is great, but unfortunately we were let down by the apartment. It's been completely remodelled since the photos and description was written (looking closer at the detailed reviews - you see others speak to this. We went from the overall star rating rather than reading all the detailed reviews so it was missed). It's clearly been 4+ months since these changes have been made based from past reviews, so very disappointing the advert is not accurate. If the advert was accurate, we wouldn't have stayed. We were specifically looking for an apartment with a sofa so we had an area to sit and relax, which this apartment no longer has.
Pros:
- Bruno is a great guy and very helpful. Friendly and has good recommendations.
- Bruno is a taxi driver so he arranged transport to/from train station which takes the guesswork out of getting to and from the apartment. He owns a nice 6 seater Mercedes van - better value if 4 or more people are travelling.
- Has a (pod style) espresso machine with almost unlimited espresso pods which was great
- Good location to walk to restaurants and many tourist attractions. 30 minute walk to Colosseum and 30 minute walk (other direction) to Vatican City. Most other sites within 5-15 minutes.
Cons:
- Apartment has been completely remodelled since the photos listed. We had to pull up the advert to see if it was even the same place. Had it been accurately represented, we wouldn't have chosen it.
- Advert states the apartment is on a very quiet street. In fact, the street is noisy until the early hours. You are directly on the street so you hear everyone walking by at night. Also, the only windows are downstairs and directly on the street, so it didn't feel safe to open them to get fresh air. Maybe during the day, but not at night.
- The advert shows a sofa which is no longer there. Instead there is the main bed which is now downstairs and a second small bed upstairs (which was not made up, so felt a little like the upstairs space was being used as a storage space for it). This meant there was nowhere comfortable to sit after a long day as the apartment is ultimately a studio apartment with bed/kitchen/dining all in the one downstairs space
- The upstairs has been completely remodelled with the stairs being relocated and the banister and surfaces all being redone. The materials used are different from pictured and don't have a good finish like in the pictures.
- Downstairs the table/chairs have been replaced and are not as cute/trendy as pictured.
- The wallpaper has been replaced and peeling in many areas. The curtains are different from the pictures, with one plain and one with a cats head pattern - which is quite strange.
- On the taxi ride back to the station, instead of Bruno, a stranger showed up at our door. I had to contact Bruno to find out who he was. Turns out he was the taxi driver Bruno arranged. Not sure of the arrangement, but the guy was nice and on time.