Alessandra is the perfect host. Everything in her place is super clean, newly remodeled, and quite spacious. It's in a really safe complex where the building and parking is within enclosed gates, so we never had to worry about our car getting broken into (we've heard horror stories about that for foreign license plates).

I actually needed to get a local sim card, and Alessandra offered (and I gratefully accepted) to drive me me to a store to get one. Our daughter was quite ill in the beginning of our trip, and by the time we made it to Milan, we needed to find a doctor. Alessandra was always available if I had a question for her like on doctors or pharmacies (since it was a Sunday when everything is closed) and then followed up with us throughout the trip to make sure we were doing ok or if we needed anything.

In the end, I felt like we had a friend, rather than just a host, in a foreign city for us.