In an ancient city dripping in nostalgia and postcard views, the dream is to stay in an atmospheric old building tucked into a quiet alley away from the crowds, but still close enough to hear the rumble of a street car and clang of a church bell. And then you turn the corner and realize that’s exactly where you’re staying. And it comes with a rain shower head and king-size bed!
For us, the location could hardly be any better. We’re big walkers, but the tram stop is on the same block, and Uber drivers can drop you just around the corner. Along with the plentiful hot water, we appreciated the large closet with plenty of hangers, the many options for hanging out (downstairs on the sofa or bar stools, upstairs on the bed or cute deck chair), and the kitchen stocked with microwave, toaster, tea kettle, and French press coffee pot (not that we would ever be tempted away from our daily cafezinhos from Alfama Doce and Pastelaria Sto Antonio).
Emily was responsive throughout the booking process, and we were happy to meet João in person on arrival and on the property during our stay. These are exactly the kind of hosts you hope for when you book with Airbnb, friendly and hospitable and capable and thorough. Five star service all the way.
The elephant in the room was the internet. Or conspicuous lack thereof. On our phones, it simply did not work most of the time. And with the thick stone walls in a narrow passageway, we barely got mobile signal (essentially we had to hang out the upper floor window and wait for a flicker of 4G). Yes there is a credit card-sized WiFi booster on site, but it often seemed to have shut itself off, which didn’t matter much since it wasn’t working anyway. Yes you can pick up a different router on the shared patio, but this involves exiting the apartment, going to the adjacent building, and upstairs to an outdoor space. Not really ideal in winter rain. We got into the habit of doing as much of our TripAdvisor research as we could while we were out at lunch or on the trains, but if we’re honest it just seems a bit disingenuous to say that this property has a dedicated WiFi router. Basically when when we were home we were incommunicado. Which was not without its benefits, but if we’d had a clear sense of the situation in advance, we could have probably prepared better.
We would certainly stay here again. But first maybe it’s better to put some space between us and the pasteis de nata. The first step is admitting you have a problem...