We never met the host. She had one of her assistants meet us at the location. The assistant was 30 minutes late which was a bit frustrating as we were waiting out in the streets with our bags for quite a while. The apartment is just as described, and is nice and spacious, which made it easy to feel at home. Beware that there are 60+ steps to get to the room so may not be the best apartment for all folks. The location is wonderful! The apartment is right next to the Uffizi, but is on a fairly quiet street. Everywhere in Florence is easily walkable from this apartment.