Mold in Italian is "la muffa." I learned this out of necessity while staying in this apartment. This is the first bad review I've left on Airbnb because generally any issues with apartments are minor hiccups that don't really affect a trip. Not the case for my time here. It would be irresponsible for me to not leave a review sharing my experience. tldr: Under no circumstances should you stay here. Potential health hazard that the host is unwilling to properly deal with.
I had originally booked this apartment for six weeks while completing schoolwork in the city. After about a week, I started experiencing increasingly Upon arrival, the apartment was tidy, but by no means clean. After check-in I took my shoes off and the entire floor felt dusty and grimy. My feet were filthy after a few minutes. The inside of the cupboard where the dishes were stored was visibly very grimy. Figuring I was staying for six weeks and would have had to clean at some point anyway, I swept and mopped the floor. I wish I had taken a video when I dumped out the dirty mop water. It looked like I had just cleaned the floors of a high school classroom that got cleaned a couple times a year. Not wanting to do a deep clean of the entire cupboard, I grabbed a few dishes, scrubbed them because they were also not clean, and just stored them on the counter for the rest of my time there so that I wouldn't have to open or deal with the cupboard. At this point I was annoyed. I went and bought a few basic kitchen items so that I wouldn't have to use things in the apartment. I justified that the location and price were good, so I could suck it up and make-do.
About a week into my stay, I started developing moderate allergic reactions. I had hives all over my arms and had the same restless, slightly panicky feeling that comes with minor food allergies. Over the next couple days, I developed a wheezing cough and at times felt like I couldn't catch my breath. This was only ever an issue in the apartment. I'd go for a morning walk, feel absolutely fine and then go back to wheezing and itchy hives in the apartment. This was with me taking four times the recommended dose of antihistamines each day. Figured there must be something making me sick in the apartment so I started taking a close look in the less visible areas. Black mold everywhere. What I thought was basic dirt and grime in the dish cupboard? Mold. Threw on an N95 and I pulled everything out. Not only were the majority of the dishes moldy (they weren't at the front of the shelf where I'd grabbed the dishes I actually used), there was grease on the cooking pans and visible lipstick on a few of the cups. I doubt that many of these dishes were cleaned at all after being used. I looked around the entire apartment and found black mold in the bathroom, above the cupboard unit in the kitchen, throughout a curtained off storage area above the bathroom, and in the brick shelving alcove in the bedroom.
I messaged Frederica that day and expressed my concern. She replied that she had never had this problem before and that sometimes "little traces of mold can sometimes appear" and that this was common in Florence. (I've stayed in Florence before and am now staying in a building that's just as old if not older than the complex where this apartment is. Zero issues with mold or allergic reactions. This is a poor excuse to not properly deal with the situation.) I requested a professional cleaning from a company that specialized in mold removal since the allergic reactions were getting worse increasingly quickly. Frederica said that it was an architectural problem and that she would send her friend Giovanna over to clean and use a product on the mold. Giovanna was lovely, but didn't do anything I couldn't have done. She scrubbed the rack that held the supposedly clean dishes, and verified for Frederica that I was, in fact, not making the allergic reactions up. I again requested a professional cleaning, to which Frederica said she didn't know of any company that could deal with the mold and there was no way to fix it because it's an architectural problem. After realizing that this situation would not get resolved, I opted to book a different place for the remainder of my stay. At this point, I was worried about my long term health. I left the next morning.
Since leaving, the discussions over refunds have been contentious. I requested the cleaning fee back, which Frederica refused and stated "was abuse." I've recently learned that in changing the check-out date, Frederica has decided to adjust the nightly fee so that I was charged as if I originally booked a short stay, significantly increasing the overall cost. All of this was after I had already accepted a specific quote for a refund from Airbnb and vacated the property. I still did the standard check-out routine where I washed everything, stripped the linens, etc.
Look, I've read this wildly disgruntled reviews on a listing that seems otherwise great. Usually the host responds with "well you never told me" or gives a list of reasons as to why the guest was demanding or entitled and therefore the review isn't accurate. I don't know how Frederica will respond to my review, but I took a ridiculous amount of photos of the problems I encountered, including the physical reactions I experienced because of the mold. I also took video of the apartment as I left it and it was cleaner when I left than when I arrived. I include this just to say, please don't hand-wave this review as someone who was overly picky or sensitive. I was willing to let