Alessandro was an excellent host. He helped us check-in and had plenty of information on the local area and tourist spots.
The apartment and furnishings were good quality. The rooms were bigger than the photos seem, and the ceilings are really high.
There were two problems with the apartment that probably won't bother everyone. It was unseasonably hot, and the apartment doesn't have airconditioning, just two fans. This is probably common in many places in Italy, from what many people told us. The other issue was that the noisy front door of the building is right next to the main bedroom, and there were people coming home late sometimes until 2am, even surprisingly with kids at 12am! This second issue wasn't a big problem, because we were tired after big days being tourists.
There is a bar fridge and no oven (you can see this in the photos), so we couldn't cook at home as much as we wanted. There are restaurants nearby so we didn't starve, it's just a little more expensive than cooking yourself.
There are two butchers, 2-3 delis, a newsagent and three cafes in the square at the end of the street. My favourite was Cafe Villani. There is a supermarket Esselunga 10 minutes' walk away, or catch the bus #3. They all speak enough English (some of them very well), but bring a phrasebook if that makes you feel a little more confident.
At the other end of the street is a large park next to the stadium. Our 3-year-old daughter loved the park and especially the merry-go-round/carousel.
There are multiple bus stops within 5 minutes walk that take you into the centre of the city. When we stayed, bus lines 11 and 17 take 25 minutes to get you almost to the centre, then we walked or could have caught one of the mini-buses that actually go through the city centre. Don't forget to buy your bus ticket BEFORE getting on the bus, at the newsagent or one of the cafes.
We also found Canadian Island, a bilingual preschool, for our daughter to go for two casual visits. Very good staff there. Also Dr Stephen Kerr is an English doctor in the centre of Florence who was excellent.
Thanks Alessandro for letting us stay!