We loved the apartment! We loved Rome! Mabel, the maid, was so sweet and showed us everything. The location: It is close to a metro stop, a great bar (aka cafe) down the street, and closer to the Spanish Steps than I thought. The apartment: It is clean, the bathroom is large and the water is always hot. The place seems larger than it is because the ceilings are high, there are three windows for you to open and gaze out at what is happening down below (and you will want to), the bed is comfortable (the pull out couch-not so much), and the kitchen is small but well-equipped. The only thing that got to me was how noisy city life is. I swear it was only quiet between 3 and 5am. However, if you shut the windows, most of the noise is blocked out. It's just that my husband wanted the windows cracked. The washer takes like 3 hours to wash a small load, so this is an FYI to Americans. However, the clothes come out drier than an American washing machine, so when you hang them on the drying rack, it doesn't take as long as you might imagine. There are a lot of steps, but there is a very small elevator. Wasn't a big deal for us.
Back to the city noise-one morning around 7am, we heard lots of honking, so we looked out the window. The garbage man couldn't get by a parked car and he was laying on the horn. After about 5 minutes of this, he got out of his truck and talked out loud (probably cursing that car) up and down the street while he picked up the garbage by hand and brought it down to the truck. Very entertaining! Overall, it was a great apartment and we would definitely stay there again. Wish we were there right now!