Caterina’s apartment is perfect for a true Florentine experience. A very old building but redone with modern clean amenities, on a quiet street right next to everything you need.
We stayed for the entire month of October working remotely while enjoying the city. The bed was super comfortable, the bathroom is super modern and shower has great hot water. The wifi has just been upgraded to fiber and is now getting 80mpbs which is a lot for Italy. There are multiple working spaces so perfect for us as we both were working. The only thing I would have preferred would for there to be some side tables or a coffee table for the couch. Also the couch is a pull out (not that we used it) but the cousins seem to slide off easily if you slouch. A bit small for two people but I can’t knock the place just for that. We got an HDMI cable and plugged our laptops into the TV to watch Netflix as we could not get into any Italian televisions :/. The kitchen is great, stove is convection and fast. There is everything you need to cook. We cooked many nights and ate out for lunch mostly. There are a ton of great restaurants nearby, trattoria boboli, just down stairs had amazing steaks when you start to get tired of pastas and cold meats.
The location is perfect, a five minute walk to Pitti Palace and Piazza Santa Spirito. Market, coffee and laundry right downstairs. There are 4 flights of stairs and can be quite steep, so make sure you are in decent shape of you plan on going in and out a lot. I even rented a road bike for a week and had to lug it up every day. It was worth it though because riding the Tuscan hills is unforgettable.
I’m not sure if this will affect anyone else but the girl above us was very loud at times. For most of the stay it didn’t affect us. But the last week she had people over very late a few nights and we couldn’t sleep with them shouting and moving furniture around. I know the that Caterina can’t control that but I just need to let people know it was the only bad point and completely out of her control.
As for Caterina as a host she was fantastic. Extremely responsive, easy to contact on WhatsApp, let us know if any issues and responded working minutes if we had any issues.
Remember in Italy that the addresses for business are in red, and homes in black. So make sure you go to the black number not the red.
By the end of our stay we didn’t want to leave, it was really starting to feel like home, we will miss it but also cherish the one month of living like true Florentines.
I would recommend anyone who is looking to live in Italy, not vacation as a tourist, but truly live like a local to stay here. When we come back to explore more we will 100% stay here again.