Lucia was an outstanding host! She was responsive to messages - not just before our arrival but throughout our stay - and nothing was too much trouble. The flat looks exactly as it does in the photos which isn't always the case on Airbnb. Lucia was flexible with check-in and was waiting for us when we arrived from the airport. She talked us through a map of Rome as well as the local area which helped us to get our bearings plus she had suggestions of activities and restaurants close to her place. At one point, we needed to put on a small clothes wash but were also heading out for the entire day to meet friends so weren't going to be home when the wash cycle finished. Lucia very kindly came round and hung our laundry out so that it would be ready for us the next morning. This was such an unexpected and much appreciated touch!! She also surprised us by leaving fresh fruit in the flat - upon arrival but also later during our stay. There's a great local market just a few steps from the front door where you can see how the locals shop!
There were only two downsides to the flat. The first was the damp. The combination of this being a lower ground floor flat along with our stay coming off the back of a very rainy May in Rome meant that any clothes we had left out of our suitcases were damp to the touch when we would get home in the evening. We also had a few mosquitoes who came to stay (they don't like my blood but they LOVED my boyfriend's...) Lucia had left instructions on how to use the heating and air conditioning to address this issue but as we weren't getting home until very late at night, we didn't really have the time (or energy) to follow through on this. She also left several forms of mosquito repellent when I got in touch with her about it as well as personally coming to investigate the situation.
The second downside (for us) was the location of the flat which wasn't as central as we might have liked (a few have mentioned this in other reviews). This was my own fault though as I hadn't had the time to properly research and plan our trip in advance. There were two local buses that we used which were super handy and took us everywhere we needed to go - so much so that we nicknamed them the 'magic buses'.
N.B. If you are going to use the bus, you might want to get a few extra tickets from any Tabacchi (newsagent / corner store) - they are literally all over Rome. There was a Tabacchi just down the road from Lucia's place but it is closed on a Sunday so we got caught out that morning having not bought tickets in advance. Buses do not take cash!! Tickets are cheap: €1.50 so it's worth spending the few euros to make sure you have them on hand.
We found Ubers to be quite expensive throughout Rome and the surge pricing kept catching us out with longer waiting times than we experience in London. You can download the MyTaxi app in advance of your trip and Lucia will give you a code that gives you €5.00 off your first journey.