We made a very last minute reservations to stay at Donatella's apartment. She was very nice to accommodate our last minute reservations. The apartment we requested was suppose to accommodate four. However the sleeper sofa was broken. After a lot of confusion dealing with the hosts housekeeper - we were moved to the apartment next door.

The locations is spectacular in so many ways - you are right in the heart of Florence. You are in Piazza Signoria facing Palazzo Vecchio to your left and Uffizi gallery. Five minutes walking distance to everything in Florence. Having said that the apartment is located on the second floor of a very busy Piazza. Its very noisy until 3 - 4am every night and then again at 6 am with the street vendors bringing in their carts. Unbelievably noisy. Bring ear plugs.

The bathrooms are very small. There was no shampoo. Very minimal hand soap. The towels are very old and a bit rough. The WIFI is very slow. You have to pay an extra cleaning fee upon check-in - and take out your own trash before you leave. We were told by the host who was very prompt to responds to messages - 'its not a hotel.' Not even water in the fridge.

We never met the host or spoke to her. She had a housecleaner meet us and handle the whole process. It took a long time to 'check -in' between dealing with the sofa-bed being broken and the housecleaner insisting on making a photocopy of our passports when I told her I would email pictures to the host and dragging out the check-in. With two little kids, long travel day and going through many hoops to find parking in Florence. After two hours of checking in, the housekeeper said she would go out and make photocopies of all our passports, including our children's. She later came back and left a note asking me to email the passport pictures to the host.