My wife and I spent 6 nights at The Ancient Tower Penthouse in May 2018. Our experience was somewhat mixed. This is the good and the bad.

The Good

The apartment, the location, and the view (from every window and both terraces) were all incredible. A 5+ star experience by any measure. And the hosts were responsive and friendly. We were just minutes from everything.

The Bad

It is 67 steps from the street to the room with a two floor elevator ride in the middle of it all. It’s an ancient, beautiful building and the penthouse level gives you the view you want. But carrying your luggage up and down those stairs plus returning after a long day of touring was tiring. The street noise, at least when we were in town, was extremely loud. There is a large party bar across the street that creates noise all night but especially when it closes at 4:00 am. Thursday thru Saturday were the worst for us and wax ear plugs were required every night. The master bed was underwhelming with just a mattress that was a little thin. The kitchen was stocked with salt and that was it. When we checked in, the coffee maker was missing (broken and replaced on our 4th day), the cutting board was broken into two pieces and the sole large cutting knife was broken as well. The terrace umbrella was broken which made it hard to avoid the sun. None of these were big issues for us, just inconveniences.

What it felt like was that the owners were doing the minimum such as not checking between guests to make sure everything was as it should be. That ‘as is’ was good enough and the guests should be thankful for the great views. But it wasn’t. It was disappointing.