Francesca was a wonderful host. She was able to meet us an hour early for check in at 2 pm so we didn’t have to wait outside in the heat with luggage until check in at 3 pm, which we greatly appreciated. She also left us a very nice welcome gift and walked us through all the essentials when we arrived.
We didn’t end up loving the area we were located in, but this is of no fault of the host as the area was accurately described. It was close (within 20 minutes) of all the major sites but next trip we will prefer to stay further outside of the city center.
The apartment space was great, quite large by European standards actually. The space came with everything you could need and especially great wifi. We only wished there was more counter space in the bathroom and shelving in the shower to hold soap and shampoo. Also, when we brought pizza and salad home one night, we did learn there was no balsamic, salt, pepper, or basics other than olive oil. It was fine for us but if you plan to eat/cook in during your stay, you will need to buy your own spices.
Also during our stay we did have to deal with an AC problem. It worked fine the first day and night but didn’t get too cool even when set to the lowest temp. On the second night, it started making really annoying vibration noises which we couldn’t sleep through, and appeared to be leaking. Rather than waste precious vacation time with coordinating repairs with the host on our last day in Florence, we opted to deal with it for one more day/night but it was quite hot and not ideal. (I will note that we communicated the AC issue to the host immediately upon check out and she responded that she would have repairs done asap so it shouldn’t affect future stays. She was very easy to communicate with and helpful. Because of this, I would still recommend staying with her if you’re looking for a place in this area of Florence.)
The only other issue we had was a bout of fruit flies in the bathroom. We managed to kill most of them after the first day and we still had a gnat here and there didn’t bother us too much after that. I’m guessing this was a problem caused by prior guests, so again no fault of the host.