My arrival at the apartment went very well. Phil was very kind and understanding because I had a few problems with the travel to Rome and therefore arrived a bit later than expected. I had high expectations for him just because of how kind he was this first night I arrived.
After this though, I can only describe my stay as okay. The first problem was the fact that the air conditioning system in the room was not functioning at all. I had it set to the highest power and lowest temperature and still I would sweat just being in the room because the temperatures in Rome were averaging about 35 degrees, and sometimes reaching up to almost 40. Phil had told me multiple times that this would be fixed but then it was never done.
Despite the uncomfortableness caused by the lack of air conditioning, it was bearable and this is not the main problem I have with my stay. During my time there, I felt like I was an annoyance to Phil and his home, which doesn’t really make sense to me because he is the one who rents out the rooms, but there were multiple scenarios in which I felt that Phil was very condescending to me when I was just carrying out my normal activities. For example, turning on the fume hood while I was cooking was a rule that had to be followed, and yes, I forgot a few times but I don’t think my food made much smoke or a mess, and then after forgetting multiple times, I started to remember to have it on, but even while I was boiling water I was reminded that I needed to have it on, which still doesn’t really make sense to me. While on the topic of cooking, there were multiple times where I would be in the kitchen making my food and Phil would arrive, telling me “all right kid don’t forget that I have to eat too you know”, which maybe was sarcastic but given the nature of our relationship I don’t think it really made sense and came off as rude to me. There were many other interactions between me and Phil that were similar to these.
In these situations it often felt as though I was being treated like a child, and although I am only 18 years old, I feel that I am mature enough and deserve to be treated like an adult, and this was just not the case here. I came to Rome for a serious internship, not just to have fun.
Lastly, there seemed to be a bit of confusion with the dates of my checkout. I had originally planned to stay until the 31st of July, which is how long I booked the Airbnb for. I told Phil that I may have had plans to leave early by one day, on the 30th, but then at the end decided to stay another day because my plans had changed, which seemed to upset Phil when I mentioned it to him, as he thought I was leaving the 29th of July, but this doesn’t really make sense seeing as I booked the room until the 31st, so I think this was a mistake on his part.
I think me and Phil had a few misunderstandings throughout my stay at his home, but overall my stay was all right. Just be careful if you decide to stay here.