This apartment is gorgeous. The building is gorgeous. The host is responsive and generous. I inadvertently left something behind in the apartment and Maria was kind enough to send it on to Porto where I could get it before leaving Portugal. I felt this went above and beyond and am very grateful for her efforts. Another host would not have gone out of her way like that.
There were some features of the apartment that made our stay less than perfect that it's worth mentioning and which had to do partly with the season (hot) and partly with the fact that apparently the previous guests had broken things and stolen the fan. Because there was no fan, we had to keep the windows and french doors to the bedroom open. This meant that when the bars closed on the adjacent street with lively nightlife, the apartment was really noisy and it was difficult to sleep. In addition, there is a motion sensitive lamp outside of the bedroom that meant bright light was flashing into the room all night. Again, if we had had a fan, we could have closed the doors and shutters and the room would have been dark and quiet. We were not so fortunate and the fan was unable to be replaced soon enough for our comfort.
Aside from this convergence of unfortunate circumstances, the apartment is fabulous, the bed comfortable, and the host terrific.