TLDR: Great apartment, good location, Terrible host. if you're planning on a night or two stay, it should be fine. but if you're looking for something longer, look elsewhere.
PROs:
the unit is pretty much exactly as described and the location is near the center of everything but removed enough to not feel super touristy all the time. Great Neighborhood! Small but functional space with most of your basic needs.
small CONs:
No toilet paper when we arrived (which was late so not ideal). Tiny shower - we showered at the gym most of the time. It's worth double noting that the heat goes off in Florence certain times of year - regardless of the actual weather. But this is pretty standard for the city. Still it was cold. Windows are thin and so you hear everything outside. And finally, you can only get about 15 minutes of hit water for the shower
BIG CONs:
this host was not helpful in any way and in fact made the stay extremely uncomfortable. At one point during our stay the electricity went out for the entire block (it happens). when the electricity came back on, the gas did not. apparently these were connected systems and we were told she would have to send someone to turn it on. this meant no heat (this is while we still had it) and we could not cook. She refused to give an estimated time for when someone would arrive (not even to say if it would be that day or the next) and told us "it wasn't a hotel' and that was it. I asked for more details on ANY expected time of arrival and she only seemed to become more short and more annoyed in her texts saying the heat was "not vital" (Italian: non é vitale). It got into at least the 40F each night... At 2:35A i got a message on air BnB that if we wanted we could try to fix the problem ourselves ..we did that the next morning. i don't understand why this wasnt the first thing mentioned rather than making us skip dinner and sleep in the cold???
but it doesn't end there. As i felt uncomfortable asking for anything after this, i didn't mention that the main room light had gone out in the first week. a week later i did mention it and was given a similar reply, someone will be by eventually and "non è vitale" and to open the windows and light will enter... The lightbulb never got replaced and we stayed ~2 more weeks. In trying to coordinate a time for things to get fixed I had mentioned that we would be gone most of the day. Out of the blue and with no context she sends me a message passively criticizing me for leaving my dog in the unit for so long. i then explained we would be dropping by at some point in the day to let her out and that i wouldn't know exactly when. Still I don't see how it was necessary to criticize my living habits if it doesn't affect her or the unit. The final nail in the coffin was the day before our check out, like most hosts she asked for when we'd be out, i replied. then we get a message reminding us to clean up after ourselves and that we "only paid for two hours of cleaning!" This whole stay was ridiculous! We were told frequently how things cost money and we only paid for x or z but received little to no help when issues occurred.
After staying there myself i wish I had given previous reviews more credence. There was another lengthy review that mentioned the stay being made uncomfortable by the host and all i can say is I understand and i wish I had listened.
This place is a HARD PASS in my book. too bad since it was a really good unit.