Elisabetta did a great job coordinating our arrival and readying her apartment for our visit. Her parents made the trip from La Spezia to welcome us and show us around as Elisabetta was out of town. She generously loaned us a fan which was needed as the temperature in Florence was at about 40 celsius for all three days/nights of our stay. We later found out we could have rented an air conditioner for 130 euros for a month's period which we may have considered had we known about it earlier. Instead we slept with the windows open while it was dark (but my daughter was bitten many many times all over her body by mosquitos as a result unfortunately...). Other than that, the neighborhood was perfect!!! There was a good supermarket down the street an it was the perfect distance to see (and get away from the bustle of) "old town". There are also sites on the same side of the river as the apartment that are VERY worthwhile visiting.