Mario was a delightful host. We chose Mario's place because we wanted to have a quiet place away from the sea of the tourists. He met us at the train station and drove us to the apartment- because of its location this was an absolute must! But with Mario's instructions we became pros at getting the train into the city. The apartment was clean and comfortable. If you want to be in the city Mario's place is not for you...but we loved being able to retreat from the tourist frenzy. Mario was sweet and took us on a quick trip to Siena and San Gingnano. The only challenge we had with the apartment was the Internet connection which was terribly slow but in retrospect it wasn't necessarily Mario's fault but an infrastructure issue...how spoiled we are in the states.