I had a great stay overall at Rolando’s apartment near Ponte Vecchio and Piti Palace. Rolando was very communicative leading up to my reservation and quickly responded and was very accommodating during my stay the few times I had questions. Check in was a breeze. Roberto was also great and welcoming.
The apartment itself is nice and has a great view of via Guicciardini. The security screens act nearly as blackout curtains, which is great if you need to get some extra sleep. Some mosquitoes can still get inside even if you have the screens down, so I advise only opening the windows briefly (less than a few minutes with screens down, less than a minute if screens not down).
Some downsides: 1) the couch was basically unusable. Sat on it and quickly realized I would fall through it if I stayed there. Two people sitting in it wouldn’t almost certainly break it completely. I never used it the rest of my stay. This could be and I assume soon will be remedied with a new/different couch. 2) There was intense and loud construction going on in adjacent units intermittently from 8am to 4pm nearly every day, including weekends. Drilling and hammering so loud one wouldn’t be able to have a conversation during it without yelling. I assume (and hope) this is a very uncommon occurrence, likely during the tourist off-season (ie not summer). Rolando was very sorry to hear it but had no control over it, as the other units have different owners. If you know you’ll be in the apartment a lot during the day I recommend checking with Rolando prior to booking about whether construction has been occurring recently. Or I trust Rolando can update the listing description to indicate whether it is or is not.
I recommend his place and would book it again if I’m in Florence.