My friend and I stayed in Maria's apartment on our first ever trip to Rome - and it was utter perfection! Eleanora was the perfect host and the apartment is beautiful, in a great location and has everything you need for a brilliant stay. I honestly cannot recommend this place enough! Eleanora contacted us before our stay to ask us about how we would like the apartment set up (sofa bed etc.), and also provided us with a detailed list of attractions and where to buy tickets. On her recommendation we saved money and time by getting the SIT Shuttle Bus from Fiumicino airport which was only 6 Euros each and stopped a two minute walk away from the apartment. Eleanora met us off the bus and showed us to the apartment, which is beautifully decorated with amazing artwork and literature from all over the world it seems!
She spent time with us and had printed off maps, lists of things to do and see and local spots to check out including a gorgeous bakery and the local supermarket, which both came in very handy. There was a lovely bottle of wine and beautiful Italian coffee for us also. We had the wine on the balcony on the first night! The balcony is really sweet, and looks out onto a little courtyard with a water feature. The apartment is so spacious and evening walks can be taken around the beautiful Piazza Cavour which is two minutes walk away. The Vatican is a 10 - 15 minute walk away from Piazza Cavour along the river, and the busses are easy to navigate to get to the Colosseum and the Piazza Venezia. Eleanora's maps were really helpful and we used them to navigate our way around with the public transport with these. Eleanora was easily reachable through Whatsapp throughout the stay, and provided us with the name of an optician we could go to when my friend needed to replace a contact lens on the first morning! We went in February and the local area was fairly quiet, although there are enough restaurants and bars within walking distance as well.
We had three days in Rome and saw the Colosseum, the Capitoline Museum (which I would highly recommend! Excellent museum!), The Vatican Museum and St Peter's Square, The Trevi Fountain and The Pantheon (I would recommend Ristorante Il Falchetto near here for gorgeous Sicilian Prawns and pasta!) and so much more.
Our trip was short, but very sweet, and honestly staying at Maria's apartment with Eleanora as the host just made the whole thing so memorable and fantastic. We will most likely be coming back and very much want to stay here again! Thank you so much for making our stay so special!