If your main focus is a room with a fantastic view of the Duomo, this place has it. The room was also clean, as pictured in the photos, and had the described amenities. There was even a manual explaining the rules of the establishment and giving tips on where to go and what to do in the area.
However, with such stringent and inflexible check in rules for guests as stated in the post, I expected management would hold themselves to the same standard. It is clearly stated in the house rules that check in is from 3-7, that if you need to check in after 7 you must give 24 hours notice and pay 30 euro, and that if you do not give notice you will simply not be checked in if you are 30 minutes past the allowed timeframe. We scheduled our entire day around the stated check in time- we bought our train tickets to arrive in Florence and timed museum entrance tickets based on when we were supposed to be allowed to check in. We gave the host two weeks notice of our train time and arrival time in Florence. Once on the train, we received communication that there would be a fifteen minute delay in our check in time, which in reality turned into 45 minutes of standing on a busy street with all of our luggage and several other people who were also waiting to check into the same building at the same time. Not being able to check in until 45 minutes after the agreed upon time made us almost miss our museum entrance time and caused a great deal of stress, as did standing in the street for 45 minutes. Joana, who did eventually come to check us in, was very sweet and did the best she could, but she was obviously very hurried and overbooked.
The other thing you should be aware of is that there is a public terrace area in front of the room with a view of the Duomo where other guests may also gather. This meant that we woke up to people having their breakfast and chatting loudly right in front of our window, and came back from a tiring day to people drinking beer and eating their dinner right in front of our door. This made for an uncomfortable situation and affected our ability to enjoy the the apartment and the view that is the main draw.
The washing machine works well, but be sure you bring your own detergent. There is no outside place to dry laundry, but a drying rack is available to guests. This in combination with the provided fan allowed us to do laundry in the apartment, but the rack took up a lot of the living space.
Because this is a very old building you need to be careful not to run too many appliances at once. As another reviewer mentioned, there are instructions to fix the breaker yourself along with a key. We were careful and so did not have an issue with the electricity, but it meant choosing between washing clothes and running the air conditioning on a 95 degree day.
Other reviews complain about the bed and the shower not being clean, but we experienced neither of these problems. The shower was clean and I would say the bed was the most comfortable one we slept in on our trip.
If you aren't on a strict time schedule and don't mind a more communal environment, the apartment was clean and comfortable and the view can't be beat.