Love, love, love this place!
Love, love, love this host!
My family (wife, 3 year old son and 1.5 year old son) stayed here in mid-December 2020, during our trip to Florence. Overall, it’s a great apartment and in a good location not too far from all the attractions. We would definitely stay here again and highly recommend to anyone else traveling to Florence (Firenze).
Check-in: I messaged Leonardo (host) to let him know we would be arriving in Florence early and asked if we could check in around 12pm. He informed us that another guest was checking out that day and he would try to get the apartment cleaned and ready for us as quickly as possible and offered to have our luggage stored near the apartment. The day before our arrival, I messaged Leonardo again to let him know that we would be arriving even earlier and I would contact him once we arrived around 11am so we could store our bags.
On check in day, we arrived at the apartment around 11am and only waited a few minutes for Leonardo to show up. Normally, I take care of moving our luggage but my 3 year old son was throwing a temper tantrum and my wife was holding our other son. Leonardo practically took it upon himself to move our 5 suitcases into the building, up 3 stairs and into the what I thought was a small storage room that turned out to be an elevator. Now 5 pieces may not seem like a lot but we had 2 medium suitcases that weight 24 kg (~53 lbs) each and the 3 smaller suitcases were around 16 kg (30 lbs) each. I felt really bad because he was sweating when I saw him on the second floor.
We took the stairs to the second floor and entered the door for Cherubini Palace and found ourselves in a small foyer. The door on the left was to our “Time” themed apartment, while the door straight ahead was for the “Game” themed apartment, and the door to the right was for the “Music” themed apartment. It was at that point I realized we weren’t storing our bags but we’re actually checking into our apartment!!! What a pleasant surprise.
The apartment was clean and nicely decorated - we loved all the different clocks placed throughout the apartment and the thought that went into the little details. We also loved the tall ceilings (12 or 15 feet) which gave the place a more spacious feel. The TVs in each room was convenient, especially when traveling as a family.
On the kitchen table was a welcome gift: bottle of wine, coffee pods, orange juice, cookies and chocolates. Leonardo then took the time to explain everything from the heater to the washer and jacuzzi.
On the second day, we left around lunch time and spent the day walking around and seeing all the attractions (due to COVID everything was closed but we enjoyed seeing them from the outside). We returned around 5:30pm and and returned to another pleasant surprise. Hanging on our apartment door were two plastic bags: each had a small stuffed animal and few pieces of chocolates for my boys. This simple gesture really warmed our hearts and is evidence of generous hospitality of the host that goes above and beyond what is required.
Because Leonardo went above and beyond, I was compelled to write a very detailed review and why he deserves 5-stars: 5-star apartment and 5-star hospitality. His apartments will be the first place I look when we visit Florence again. I just hope they’ll be available when things return to normal post-COVID.