There was some hiccups during our stay, but overall it was lovely. We booked Martina's flat because it's a 10-minute walk (two of us are in our late 20s and our mum is 56) from the station (give yourselves an extra 5 minutes if you have luggage). It was easy to find the place with Martina's directions and there are lots of eateries and supermarkets nearby. Overall we would recommend this flat to anyone who uses Florence as a base to travel to Pisa and Siena, and to explore Florence itself.
Pros:
- Lift! So hard to find a flat in Florence which is on the ground floor or has a lift.
- Aircon, although it gets chilly at night so there's no need to use it.
- Safety, the street it is on is not too noisy but not too quiet either.
- Short 10-minute walk to the river or Piazza del Duomo, and an extra 5-10 minutes to Boboli.
- The flat was clean, well-equipped (hairdryer for us long-haired ladies and a washing machine too) and warm with no drafts.
- Luca checked us in, and was warm and friendly, taking the time to explain things. He was running a little later than we had liked after travelling for over 24h, but he explained that he had had two other check-ins to see to in the same hour and one of them had been late.
- Martina also replied to our queries quite promptly which was great especially when we ran out of hot water the first night.
Cons:
- The boiler needs to be reset before each person takes a shower, as it heats up a limited amount of water. Give it at least 15 min between turns. The water got cut the morning of our check-out but that had to do with a disruption of the municipal water system, and not the flat itself.
- The mattresses and pillows are thin, but we are beginning to think that that may be an Italian thing :)