We stayed at 3 VRBO properties on this trip to Italy, and sadly this was our least favorite.
The check in went fine, although it was VERY quick and we didn’t quite yet know what we didn’t know.
There is a thermostat as you would expect to find. We fought with it for a couple of hours, thinking it was working but responding slowly, until we later found the remote control that operated the A/C unit directly. Would have been nice to know. Would have taken 10 second to tell us. The apartment is very humid.
There is a weird collection of random objects, but missing some essentials. There is plenty of artwork hanging on the walls, but no napkins, paper towels, or even a dish towel in the kitchen. There are statues and small figurines, but no wine glasses. There are espresso cups, but no espresso maker. Almost seems like a storage unit for housewares that won’t fit anywhere else.
We occasionally got a whiff of either sewage or garbage. Could not pinpoint where it came from, and it always dissipated quickly.
The couch (futon) is dreadfully uncomfortable to sit on. The bed is OK. This is a ground floor apartment with 2 big skylights, but keep in mind that the unit is surrounded by other apartments. So people from those apartments could, if they wanted, look down into this apartment. We didn’t see anyone looking at us, but if you are especially modest, you might be uncomfortable. Oh, and the skylight in the bedroom opens by remote control for ventilation, except that the batteries in the remote were dead.
The street is sketchy. It is a maze of broken down cars and disassembled scooters. Not too bad in the day, but makes you a little uneasy at night. They point out that there is a police department nearby. Didn’t make us feel any better about it.
Also, maybe we just didn’t know how to work the TV. We were able to get only 3 stations, all in Italian. Now we didn’t come to Rome to watch, TV, but like to have it on before bed and first thing in the morning. I would think it would be nice to have included an English speaking news channel as well, as I suspect many of the guests are English speakers. Or maybe they could have left us some simple instructions.
None of the issues were a big deal, but just added to a mediocre experience.
On the good side, you are near the Colosseum, plenty of restaurants, and pretty close to the train station.
Three stars from us for placing style WAY before function on this one.