Tommaso was very accommodating to our schedules for arriving and leaving, and very kind to have some information about Florence there in the apartment.

His good English explained the heating system and all the little things we needed to know about staying there at the apartment after our arrival.

The apartment location was close enough to walk to museums and other places we wanted to visit. Our charming second story view gave us glimpses of locals and tourists every day.

We are used to country life, so city traffic is a bit noisy for us. Fortunately I brought along some silicone earplugs which were good to block out night time traffic noise on the streets below. Italians drivers often honk their horns, and police or ambulance sirens are quite loud. On a Saturday night, revelers in the street below were singing as they walked on their way.

A little kitchen there at the apartment (furnished with dishes and cooking pans) was very handy for many of our morning and evening meals after visits to the bakery and markets close by. A small refrigerator, stove top, little oven, and microwave easily handled all we needed to do in the kitchen.

We Americans are used to our electric coffee makers but we quickly adjusted to making our morning coffee with the little stove-top espresso maker in the kitchen. Tommaso had thoughtfully left some ground coffee for us and a nice bottle of Chianti.

We had adequate internet service at the apartment for the laptop we brought with us and were able to keep up with our online communications. I'm also very glad that there were electric plug converters there for our use, as the one we brought with us didn't work.

Tommaso even had an umbrella handy for our use which was very useful the time we were there in Florence (early March), as it rained nearly every day.