Pros:
- Francesco is super nice and communicative, and so is his team.
- We landed late at night, and Francesco took care of getting us a ride directly to the apartment, for a cheaper price than any other option we managed to find.
- We left Rome rather late, and Francesco offered to keep our luggage at his office - a 5 minute walk from the apartment - which was of great help.
- The apartment is located on the top floor of the building (great air!), in the beautiful and beating heart of Trastevere.
- The apartment is beautifully designed and well furnished, full of light, amazing balcony, comfortable bed, and the biggest bonus for us - super comfy memory foam pillows!
- Great heating system, which was very helpful during the quite freezing week we got there.
Cons:
- The downside of the central location - NOISE. And lots of it. Even though the entrance to the building is from a (relatively) side alley, the apartment window overlooks a more lively, wider alley, and the noise of well drunk people and music from the bars they might have been drinking at, went on well into the night. We were with closed windows as it was very cold out, and still the noise kept us from getting a good night's sleep. Wouldn't want to try it out with warmer weather and open windows (though there is AC in the apartment which could allow for the windows to stay shut).
- The 'sideness' of the entrance alley seems to encourage the use of the area around the entrance to the building as an open air, night time latrine. Not the nicest sight when coming back after a long day in the city.
Points for notice:
- There were renovations going on in (or more accurately - on the outside of) the building, which we were not informed of ahead of time.
They started working at 8:00, sometimes rather quietly, other times very loudly. The worst of it was the morning before last, when a worker appeared in the apartment window while we were still in bed. Not the most fun way to start a day. If you plan on having lazy, quiet mornings as we did, then we would recommend verifying this ordeal is over with before booking this apartment.
- The apartment is on the top floor, with no elevator. The staircase is steeper and narrower than standard, so if you're not a stairs person it might not be a good idea booking this one. It could also a bit of a challenge carrying large / heavy luggage up to the apartment.
- The bathroom is a little small and its ceiling is a bit low, so if you're on the bigger / taller side it might be a bit of a challenge there.
- If there's no hot water in the shower then make sure that the main faucet knob of the bidet (!) is pointing directly downwards. A small trick we learned from Francesco which made our showers much more enjoyable.
- There is a late check in fee of 30€.
Bottom line - had the area been a bit quieter (or we less sensitive to noise), it would most likely be added to our 'definitely going to come back' list.
Unfortunately it seems that Trastevere does not really offer truly quiet corners, so we will just have to try and find another one of Francesco's apartments, which is located in a quieter area (he really is a super host!).