Excellent base for exploring Florence -- near the center of everything yet off the beaten track enough to give you a neighborhood experience. The Santa Croce district is "la vera Firenze," but well supplied with restaurants, shops, and artisans' workshops. The local proprietress, Cristiana, lives nearby, and both she and Maria Chiara are quickly responsive to email, text, WhatsApp, or telephone. Down a corridor, up some stone steps, and at the end of another corridor, this well-appointed studio apartment has a very efficient two-burner electric cooktop (no oven), a fridge, and a small washing machine, plus microwave, toaster, a moka coffeemaker, and all the pots/pans, dish ware, glasses, and basic cutlery you might need. No real bread knife, no scissors, no stationery. The large wardrobe has many hangers and extra pillows and blankets. Unfamiliar beds sometimes make my back ache a bit in the morning, but the bed here is very comfortable. The bathroom is small but charming and the shower stall is sufficient. There's a television but I'm not a TV watcher and never turned it on. Also a three-blade fan in the high ceiling. The view outside the window, of what I'm guessing is a giant magnolia tree above a well-kept garden, creates the sense of an oasis in this city of stone. Altogether a welcoming home away from home.