It is often when things don't go right that you get a sense of a host's character. Marie's apartment is lovely. However, Marie did not tell us before we arrived that Via Serragli, the road on which the apartment sits, was closed for construction for blocks. There is no street traffic so our taxi let us off several blocks away from the apartment and we had to drag our suitcases in the afternoon sun. This was unexpected and frustrating. When we arrived at the apartment, there was construction going on immediately outside the front door. And I mean, heavy construction, jack hammering and backhoes. It was incredibly loud. The living areas and kitchen of the apartment face the street. Samuel, the property manager, was there to do the check-in and repeatedly apologized about the noise.
Once we returned to Canada, I informed Marie of the issue we had which was that we were not told in advance about the construction. It was clear that the street had been closed for weeks. We stayed 4 nights in her apartment and requested a refund for a single night. Marie refused to believe that there was any inconvenience, refused to believe that the noise was loud, refused to believe that we suffered any discomfort because the bedrooms don't front onto the street. She said we should have left immediately upon arrival if we were so bothered (this statement alone is absurd). She then accused us of basically making it up in order to get a refund. I've got better things to do than chase after a host for a single night's stay. The amount we asked for is a small fraction of the overall cost of our trip.
I would not recommend this apartment solely based on my interactions with the host. There are dozens of beautiful apartments in Firenze. This host needs to realize they're running a business and to treat the customer with respect.