Airbnb Review: Florence

Florence, was our second stop during our trip to Italy. This was the second of three Airbnb’s for our trip. As I have said before, I am a sucker for a nice view and this Airbnb did not disappoint. The city is absolutely gorgeous and I definitely could have spent a lot more time in this city.

Airbnb Review: Florence

Link to the Airbnb I stayed at in Florence

Booking:

There were plenty of gorgeous Airbnb’s in Florence, many with great locations as well. For me, a good view is hard to pass up, so when I saw the view from this Airbnb it moved to the top of my list.

We were staying in Florence for 3 nights and there wasn’t any room for negotiating the price of this Airbnb. The apartment was very well priced and the location was great. The total for our 3 night stay was $416. Thankfully I have focused on cash back , which took care of the cost for me.

Luckily, while I was booking all my Airbnb’s in Italy Delta was offering 3x miles on my stay. For this stay, I earned 1,248 Skymiles.

I typically redeem my Skymiles for  1.8 to 2 cents per mile value. Since the ticket prices from Bangor are higher, the value I receive is a bit inflated. Another reason why looking at a cent per point value is very subjective and in my opinion not the best way to assign value. 🙂

Arrival:

Our host reached out a few days before we arrived. She asked the time our train arrived and expected time to be at the apartment.

The day we arrived, I reached out to the host and she informed me she wouldn’t be able to be present to exchange the keys. Instead she would be sending her brother in her place. He was waiting for us when we arrived to the apartment and was very pleasant to interact with.

He gave us a full tour of the apartment and told us about sites to see in the area. It was a very easy and stress free exchange of keys.

Location:

The red dot below is the where the apartment is located. it was about a 15 minute walk to the Duomo,15 minute walk to Piazzale Michelangelo, 20 minute walk to San Miniato al  Monte. The train station was about a 20 minute walk to the Airbnb.

The neighborhood was very quite and at the bottom of the hill there was a nice market to grab groceries. I would definitely avoid that market between 6pm and 8pm, because the line was very long.

This apartment was a short walk away from  Ponte Vecchio, but I would caution you on purchasing food/gelato in that location. I made the mistake ( I knew better too) of walking in and purchasing a large gelato. I was in for a pleasant surprise of a 15 euro (~$20) gelato. 😐

The location of this apartment I felt was great. It was far enough away from the crowds, but the walk to the major attractions was perfectly fine.

The Apartment:

The view from the balcony was amazing! We were on the top floor, which happened to be 73 steps from the ground to our apartment. It was worth every step in my opinion

The Kitchen:

The kitchen was a bit cozy, but it worked out really well for us. We could fit 2 people in the kitchen area comfortably.

The gas stove came in quite handy as we utilize the espresso maker daily. The host had a nice supply of espresso, which was perfect for our stay.

The kitchen had plenty of plate, utensils, pots, and pans as well. I felt anything we needed to use during our stay, the apartment had.

The Living room:

The living room was very comfortable and was great to relax in after walking 10+ miles a day in Florence. We didn’t use the television while we were in Florence. There was plenty to do, so using the television would have been wasting time.

The Wi-Fi router was located right outside the living room area. The Wi-Fi was very fast and I didn’t have an issue with it once.

There were only a few outlets in the living room, but thankfully our adapter had multiple plug-ins to charge our phones.

The couch above, was the 2nd bed in our Airbnb. The bottom cushions were removable and the top portion of the couch would fold down. This was very different than any other fold out couch I have seen.

This is actually where we slept and the mattress of this fold out couch was very comfortable. I have found some of these to be terrible, but I was very surprise how nice this bed was.

The Bathroom:

When we were checking in, our host had ask we don’t pay too much attention to the paint of the tub. Honestly, I didn’t care that they had tried to paint the tub and the paint was chipping off

The things that mattered the most was water pressure and how much hot water we had available. Just like my Airbnb in Venice, we didn’t run out of hot water once. The water pressure was very good and overall I had no complaints about the shower.

The shower faucet had a mount (behind the towel), so you didn’t need to hold the shower head.

The toilets were pretty standard. There were a few times where you needed to push the button a few times in order for the toilet to flush. It was a bit annoying, but it wasn’t a big deal.

The drain on the bidet was closed and there wasn’t anyway (I could see) to lift the drain. If you wanted to use it, it seems you’d be out of luck.

In the bathroom, is where the washer was located. The washing machine was on the small side and you could fit a few pieces of clothing into the machine. Inside the shower was a rack to hang your clothes to dry. We found that was a little small, so we used the shower door as well.

The host left plenty of products for us to use, including detergent, body wash, and shampoo.

The Bedrooms:

In order to get to the bedroom, you needed to go up another flight of cement stairs. At first glance this looks like one large bed, but it was actually two twin beds pushed together.

My mother in law and her fiance said the bed was comfortable and they slept well.

Probably the best part of this room, is the balcony outside. The picture at at the top was taken from the balcony. The view from the room was absolutely amazing! It overlooked Florence and the sunrises/sunset were stunning.

Conclusion

This Airbnb was fantastic. The location was perfect, the view was probably my second favorite view from an Airbnb (my first was definitely Budapest). The kitchen was great for our use and having a washing machine is a big benefit.

This apartment was great and I would absolutely recommend this Airbnb if you are headed for Florence, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

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