My partner and I loved our 5-night stay at Elly/Rita's place. First, the location is perfect: right next to the Torre di San Niccolo at the bottom of the hill paths up to the Piazzale Michelangelo. It's in a lovely, close-in Oltrarno neighborhood, just 1 block off the River Arno, a 10 minute walk to the Ponte Vecchio, just east of the Ponte alle Grazie bridge. There's a lively mix of enotecas, restaurants, bars, and artisans' shops just out the front door, and it's a super easy walk across the river to all the sights of old Florence -- Uffizi, Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, Santa Croce, etc. On the Oltrarno side, we easily walked to the Pitti Palace, the Boboli and Bardini Gardens, up to Piazzale Michelangelo, and to San Miniato.

The apartment is a walk-up on the 4th floor (or "3rd floor" as Europeans would have it) of an older building. A lovely front room faces onto the Via di San Niccolo; the back of the apartment has a tiny terrace with a garden table, just off the kitchen, facing onto an interior courtyard. There is 1 real bedroom with its own full bath. There is a separate 2nd full bath off the main hall. The apartment truly feels like the home of an artistic, well-traveled woman: lots of art and ceramics from around the world, shelves full of books. Because it's truly a lived-in home, it's very well "stocked" with kitchen supplies, extra linens, etc. One note: except for the front room (pictured), the apartment is quite dark, especially the bedroom, which has no real window to the outside. That wasn't a problem, though; we spent very little time there during the day because of all there was to see in Florence. At nights, we just flipped on all the lights. The bed was very comfortable.

Elly, who manages the property for its owner Rita, was very . responsive and flexible. We were a little uncertain about our arrival schedule until the day before arriving. Still, Elly met us at the front door on our first day with keys in hand, WiFi instructions, and lots of great suggestions for places to go to happy hour and to eat in the Oltrarno neighborhood.

We would highly recommend this "Santa Croce and Old Bridge" apartment to anyone who wants immediate access to the sights of Florence in a homey environment in a lovely, walkable, reasonably quiet neighborhood.