I was cold...so cold...
Marcello and Luigina are wonderful. Very friendly and helpful. I felt very welcomed!
The apartment was as I expected (for the most part). I knew it was small, and that was fine, I didn't need more than that. The low ceilings have been mentioned many times in reviews, not a problem for me as I'm 5" 9'. The shower is very small, and only a short supply of hot water...no shaving in the shower. The kitchen was well enough supplied to make small meals. All in all, the apartment was well suited to my needs, and in a great location. However...
There was a problem with the heating while I was there. I was asked to turn the unit off when I left and not to touch any buttons but the on/off button. Fair enough. I got home on my first night, turned the unit on ---- it blasted out COLD air. It was set to a/c. So, I HAD to touch the button to turn it on heat - it was winter, after all. I went to bed and woke up a few hours later freezing. The unit was dead and flashing lights. Pushing the on/off button did nothing, so I unplugged it, and plugged it back in. It blasted cold air. It was set to a/c again, so I changed it to heat mode. I had heat for about 10 minutes. Then it shut down and flashed lights. I informed Marcello, who came by the next day with a friend who "fixed" the unit. He didn't fix the unit. He blamed me for the problem, claiming that I caused the unit to malfunction by pushing buttons - not true, I pushed one button, the "mode" button to turn it from cold to warm air, that's it - then he reset the unit. I tried to explain, but the language barrier got in the way. After they left the unit gave off heat for about 30 minutes, then died and flashed lights. There is another heating unit, gas powered, that gave off no heat. I had tried to turn it up, but then the flame went out, which worried me (gas) so i turned it off. The friend turned it back on, but it still didn't do anything to heat the place and I wasn't about to fiddle with it again. I downloaded the manual for the dead flashing light unit, discovered what the problem was, and how to fix it (it was a problem with the condensation draining system, which involved taking the unit apart, which I was not about to do) and I relayed this information on to Marcello. He didn't get back to me. So, I froze for a week, huddled under every blanket I could get my hands on.
Other than that, the apartment is great. If they fix the heating unit I highly recommend the apartment.