The interior of this rather large, yet somehow not spacious feeling, apartment amazed me. Although the building is probably from the 60s (an uneducated guess), I had to imagine arriving just a second after a 100-year-old Portuguese great-grand-mother of bourgeois aspirations, with a flair for the ornate, stepped out of her ancient family home to attend Sunday morning mass. Heavy wooden and marble furniture, ancient wallpapers and curtains, linoleum wood-look-a-like floors, smokey mirrors, a darkly framed picture of a faded flower arrangement in my room. Like going back in time. Frankly, it's not really my cup of tea, as accommodation, but it definitely was an interesting experience for one night.
The extensive and charmingly authentic looking terrace is fantastic! As our time in Porto was very limited, I didn't get a chance to use it, but otherwise I would definitely have had breakfast or evening drinks there.
The Metro station Marquês, just 1 min walk away, is on the very convenient D line bringing you straight downtown, where it suddenly becomes a tram that goes over the famous Luis I bridge, genius!
Isa was warm, welcoming and helpful (nothing ancient about her!). She even baked a delicious choco cake for her guests to enjoy (I was not the only one). The room and shared bathroom were clean. The old bed was surprisingly comfortable and equally clean. Towels were provided and the shower was good. There's quite a bit of traffic on the street outside. Wifi works fine.