An airy, sparkling clean apartment, located 15-20 minutes' walk from the Duomo so it was a haven away from the crush of the tourist zone. Locals live here and the neighbourhood felt safe, even late at night. Grocery stores, restaurants, bank machines and other services, all within easy few minutes of walking.
Host- recommended seafood restaurant Il Piccolo Pescatore was a delight (10 minutes walk) although note that the friendly, personable server spoke no English. Regardless, we managed to have a very fine meal. On our own, we stumbled on Osteria Pratellino (5 minutes walk) - amazing food with focus on local and sustainable + genial owner/host Federico, who's passionate about his extensive and interesting wine list (fluent in English).
Special thanks to the hosts for arranging with their friend to drive us to the airport because the taxis were on strike
SUMMARY: Highly recommend this apartment and helpful hosts, although note the few points below
1) No elevator/lift. 12 steps to first landing+2 steps to second landing+10 more steps to front door. Steps are fairly wide and shallow = easy to navigate, even with bulky bags
2) No living room. Only place to hang out as a group is at kitchen dining table (+6 chairs)
3) First bedroom close to front door has comfortable king bed + second virtually identical bedroom at end of hallway, away from front door. Firm mattresses with high thread count linens. Both bedrooms look out over busy street (daytime traffic) with double windows to limit noise. We slept like logs although you will hear large trucks early in the morning sometimes, so if you're sensitive to this, bring ear plugs.
4) Excellent water pressure and temperature control in both spacious ensuite bathrooms, although the hot water trips once or twice a day. This is easily fixed by flipping a switch in the hall cupboard (you will be given instructions at check in)
5) Individual wall-mounted air conditioning units in each bedroom only, none elsewhere in apartment. This means rest of apartment esp kitchen can get a little warm. We stayed during a very hot summer so would have preferred central (full) a/c. It's a stone building, hence well-insulated, so to cool the entire apartment, we left both bedroom doors open to disperse the a/c. Not ideal but worked (mostly!).
6) Equipment in kitchen is clean and in good condition but somewhat inconsistent. It will be a struggle to pull together a full meal. Example: Forks, knives and teaspoons galore, but no tablespoons. Ample dishes but no wine glasses (only glass tumblers). Small microwave worked fine for reheating. Apartment-size fridge+separate freezer was wonderful for storing all our drinks in the heat. For whatever reason, 20 or so plastic freezer packs (the blue kind) of varying sizes were provided, so some might find this handy
7) Newer-model clothes washer in the kitchen washed well. Laundry liquid was provided although we brought our own.
8) For those who care, there is no coffee machine. Only a stovetop moka pot.
9) Communication at check-in was a little tricky because we were using our laptop and AirBnB chat, whereas host preferred other messaging app