Sometimes it feels like a 5 star airbnb review is the equivalent of an A grade, and a B grade, maybe even a C grade, all at the same time. I'm guilty of this too, seeing a 4 star review and feeling like it's a bit damning. I preface with all this just to say I am not slamming this place by giving 4 stars. We liked it. Vanessa was nice and easy to deal with. And I recommend staying here if the unique features of this place suit your needs. There are a lot of lovely pluses to this beautiful apartment. Their are possible negatives depending on one's needs that are clearly articulated in photos, description, and reviews previous to this one for which I would never criticize an apartment or remove a precious star from the review. And finally their were some few negatives that I do fault the host, apartment, and description for, and which caused me to dock a star on this place, as nice as it was.
First those positives:
1. These are some lovely window views (with one forthcoming caveat). Big windows throwing in the light and vistas, not least that huge view through the living/dining room window. The kitchen was equally lovely and made it a wonderful kitchen to hang out in. There was even a charming bathroom shower view! And on the opposite side the bedrooms look out across the sort of alley street to an astonishing sort of estate, a vineyard, practically a castle high on the hill above.
2. Very spacious! This is not something we're used to renting in dense, heavily touristed European cities. The kitchen was full sized and great to cook in. The shower was not cramped and frankly a joy. The two bedrooms are not squeezed in, and though a second bedroom was irrelevant and pointless to us, for more of a group this place could become extremely nice and economical without becoming uncomfortable.
3. Easy to use building, good host contact, and more economical than the other, admittedly slightly fancy places we stayed on our trip.
Very briefly I'll go through the more obvious and noted things that may or may not suit you:
1. Location. Every single entrance exit to your apartment will involve that walk up or down the hill. It's good for you, but it is partly steep, with narrow sidewalks, and takes five or ten minutes. That just gets you to the Porto Romana, which, frankly, can be great for marketing and food. My wife especially loved it, from the vegetable market store to the vegetable stand out in the Porto Romana circle itself. Pintucci is the tied for second best gelateria in all of Florence (no small thing). Bar D'angelo is great for coffee, and so on. However, when your guidebooks and travel bloggers talk about the joys of Oltrarno they don't really mean any of this, not your apartment or even Porto Romana. They mean all the stuff more at Pitti Palace and closer to the river, which adds another 10 minute walk (increasingly less interesting the more you make it) to the start of most of what you will do in Florence.
2. Some obnoxiously noisy neighbors, and construction noise too. It does not appear to be an apartment that shuts out noise. Your mileage with all this may vary.
Now the negatives for which I must reluctantly fault this still recommended apartment:
1. Furnishings. From the pictures I understood the place to have a nice, comfortable, modern look. This is only half true and a lot of the furniture is at a tired, college student quality level, with an old, low, slumped down couch and some other folded up futon couch thing as the other alternative. If instead there was a nice, firm, decent couch, an armchair, it would have made so much difference I probably would be at 5 stars here despite the other small issues. The beds and linens reflected this tired quality too. Though the mattress was comfortable enough, it and the comforter was all kind of low, bare, and perfunctory. The furniture wasn't all this way, I should note. The dining room and kitchen chairs and tables were nice, and the big wood wardrobes and desks were as well.
2. The view! I know this was a positive, but one thing really bugged me; I can't for the life of me figure out where that feature vista picture on the airbnb listing was taken. It gave the impression that somewhere you could gaze out on the duomo. Nope. Beautiful vista, beautiful views, but as far as downtown Florence it's all a right half view. If you lean out the kitchen window you can see part of the Duomo. Trees and building really block that half of the city skyline.
3. Amenities. Vanessa mentioned when we arrived that we were the end of season people for her, but the apartment was more stripped bare than we're used to. Honestly this might have been our late season misfortune, but we had to buy not just olive oil, but soap and salt!
To not leave on a sour note, let me add again that Vanessa was nice, prompt, and easy to deal with. Despite the oddly early listed checkout time she was completely generous with our actual check out. The place was big, airy, lovely. Florence out there in outer Oltrarno is still gorgeous and interesting. The kitchen was well equipped (as far as utensils, pots, etc.- my wife loved the steamer!). And it's a great bathroom.
A variety of unique reasons could make the place fantastic for you, and we had a wonderful time there.