Wonderful historic place in a real NYC neighborhood, with a beautiful commute into Manhattan!
Natalia's place is as beautiful as it looks in the pictures - absolutely gorgeous, spacious, and historic. It's also a terrific base to explore NYC - about the same time of commute as similar places in outer areas of Brooklyn, Upper Manhattan etc, but a much prettier journey than the subway! There are frequent buses to the Staten Island Ferry terminal a block away, and the railroad (part of the NYC subway) is only a little further. Total travel time to Lower Manhattan is maybe 35-40 minutes, most of it sailing past the Statue of Liberty!
The neighborhood is a genuine diverse New York neighborhood. You won't see many other tourists here - just regular New Yorkers of different backgrounds (Dominican, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Arab, African, as well as white and Black New Yorkers of different origins). This means terrific wide-ranging food choices and real interactions with friendly people.
Natalia was great with communication, and the downstairs neighbor can help with any issues. I let Natalia know about a minor, non-urgent issue with one of the AC units, and she asked if it was OK to come by later that day to fix it. We got back from a day in the city and it was taken care of!
All in all, a great, comfortable place, terrific value for a ton of space, a great neighborhood, and easy to get to the big sights. I'd definitely book again if traveling with family or a large group.