My husband and I stayed at Mauro and Sharon's place for 2 nights. The home is about a 15 minute walk with luggage from Santa Maria Novella train station and under 10 minutes to both the Duomo and the Accademia museum.
Mauro and Sharon were both wonderful hosts and were very open with their space, offering their kitchen to us if we needed and giving us tips on Florence. It was very easy to communicate because Sharon speaks fluent English and Italian.
The room itself was quite spacious. There was no AC and so we needed to leave the windows open at night, which led to several mosquito bites and very loud noise coming in from the streets. My husband sleeps like a rock so the noise was fine for him, and I had earplugs so it ended up being ok for me as well. Just remember to bring earplugs and bug repellant! Also, the room is adjacent to Sharon's office with a wall in between that was very thin so at one point we felt like there was little privacy, but it was only one time as we were out and about most of the day. The bathroom is located down the hall past the living room and kitchen so it was a little awkward in the beginning to get used to, but it was fine after a while. The bathroom was very clean, but quite small compared to what we are used to.
Overall, we enjoyed the experience, the location was perfect, Sharon and Mauro are wonderful people, and would recommend this location!