I suppose the main reason for staying here is the location. Navigli is a trendy, lively, colourful area where it seems to be Saturday night every day of the week. The canal is lined with bars, clubs and restaurants, and the atmosphere is noisy and gaudy — but if you walk a few yards down an alley off the main street you come to a private courtyard to find Marina’s place, where you can’t hear the booming bass or the partying crowds at all. It’s another world! Added to that, it’s only 10 minutes’ walk away from Porta Genova metro station, so if Navigli sounds like your kind of fun, this is the perfect place to stay.
Although Marina wasn’t there during our stay, she arranged for us to be met by someone who gave us a comprehensive introduction to the apartment, which we found very useful. We spent 4 days here in September, in a heat wave, so we particularly appreciated the air-con. Other things we liked were the fact that the apartment was on the ground floor — no stairs! — and the quirky decorative style. The bed is very large and comfortable, but some of the interior needs a little attention: the two small side tables would have been useful to put drinks on when sitting on the sofa, but their legs are so wobbly that they would probably collapse if you put any weight on them. A couple of minutes with an Allen key would sort them out. A few of the covers over the light switches are falling off and need to be properly fixed on. But these are just minor niggles.
The only aspect of the apartment which we would say was a disadvantage is the fact that it is on so many different levels. The photographs show some of this, and to an extent, this is part of its charm. However, if you are of a certain age, and need to visit the bathroom in the middle of the night, you have to descend the 7 steps from the bedroom area to the main living room, cross to the opposite wall and then go down another 8 steps to find the bathroom. If you are not afflicted with this nocturnal need, then of course this won’t be a problem.
On the whole we enjoyed our time here, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to stay in an unusual and characterful apartment in a lively and interesting part of the city.