In my last post about our EMoon - I covered our itinerary for the trip, and how we decided where we were going to spend our time in Europe!...now the next minor detail, where would we be sleeping??
(sorry in advance, this is a lengthy one...get comfortable!)
Switzerland was easy - staying with family solved that problem, and was definitely a wonderful way to start off the trip! As far as Italy was concerned - the last time I traveled to Italy we stayed in a mix of hostels and cheaper hotels - I definitely did NOT want to be staying in any huge hostels with shared rooms on a romantic trip to Italy with my cute boyfriend ;) but I had heard of this website AirBNB where people rented out rooms in their apartments/full apartments to you! I spent a LONGGG time reading reviews, and looking at options with Ant, and we ultimately decided this was the way to go! There were some really great unique spaces and at good prices, what better way to see the cities? In some cities it was a great way to get into better parts of the city where hotels cost $$$, which we were NOT trying to spend. We also figured as a younger couple NOT super worried about room service and fancy hotels, what better time to go this route!
As far as the exact apartments we ended up staying in.....when I tell you I did a LOT of research, that would be the worlds biggest understatement. I read review after review - comparing amenities & location & cost in each. The variety is insane! We ended up deciding to only stay in options that involved renting entire apartments - no sharing spaces. Other than that - the places all ended up varying a lot. Location was probably the first biggest factor - we knew we were going to be tight for time in each city, and did not want to be wasting time getting from our apartment to the main parts of the city!
Here are the places we ended up deciding on:
Venice:
The listing isn't there anymore - but we stayed in the cosy central penthouse with a rooftop terrace - we learned quickly that we LOVE terraces! This shows you a little bit about the listing - reasonable room rate, entire home/apt...40 reviews (# of reviews was just as important as quality) - I wanted to know with 100% certainty that we were going to be in good hands.
This is what we actually walked into! I took the pictures after waking up the first morning - so please excuse the mess of luggage everywhere...this apartment had a bedroom:
Living/kitchen room area:
And stairs leading up to the terrace!!!
This was our view looking out from the rooftop terrace...
Since we had such a beautiful place to relax, we took full advantage and ate our lunches there - which saved major $$. 3 Euro bottles of wine and pizza roll ups or fresh sandwiches from local shops made for very reasonable meals - and it was so nice to refresh half way through the day back at home! Don't I look like a happy camper ;)
Saying goodbye to our rooftop terrace before heading to Florence...
Looking back on our apartment in Venice:
Location was amazing! We were not far from the main square, and literally walked everywhere - including to the train station with our luggage (we probably should have just paid for a water taxi - it was HOT and bridges make for lots of stairs). Otherwise though, perfect. Only a 5 minute walk from the shuttle stop where the girl met us. In Venice, we found that hotels (even hostels!) were VERY expensive if you wanted a decent location..so for us, this was a huge win - a way to get the location we wanted without spending a fortune.
This listing of all three by far had the worst communication with the girl who listed it, who we met up with to get keys, etc. While we were in Switzerland there was one pt where I called AirBnB because she wasn't getting back to me, and we were going to be landing at night in Venice not knowing if we had somewhere to stay. Not ideal! As it turned out, she was a theatre student and it was just a busy weekend for her...and we met with no trouble...but it was just a little more stress than I needed during our vacation. We loved everything else about the apartment, so once we were in we were fine, but definitely minus points for communication on her end.
Florence:
Florence was by FAR the most unique and fun of the places we stayed! The woman who rents it out is an artist, and the place is covered head to toe with all sorts of fun prints and art she's made.
The listing is posted here ...but here's a quick snapshot of it!
We paid $104 a night, plus fees. Again, an insane deal! The woman, Silvia, was AMAZING with communication - always answered very quickly. Her listing says theres a deposit thats required - but when I emailed her about staying there I asked if we could waive it. We were only staying two nights mid week and the deposit was almost as much as our reservation. She immediately agreed no questions asked! The apartment was no more than a 10 minute walk from the train station - so again no fees for transportation. The biggest downside to this apartment was that you had to walk up about a million flights of stairs with your luggage to get to the top floor....but it was TOTALLY worth it because you found yourself in the coolest apartment with.....yup! A rooftop terrace looking out over Florence. As you can see below in my picture, the apartment is much more updated and bright than the pictures online even suggest. Adorable, right?
The spiral staircase led to a loft with a queen size bed....
The bathroom had the brightest yellow tile, and a nice little window in the shower! Ant loved showering with the "fresh Florence air" pouring in.
Ummm...hello! This was view of the duomo from the roof. The first night we were there we celebrated with prosecco, and a selfie...
Again, probably our favorite part of the apartments and terraces was the ability to get an early start to the day, and break it up with lunch at home. This was our picnic in Florence! ...notice wine, coffee, and water! The woman we rented from suggested a place just down the street, where we got sandwiches and pizza. Yummmm.
Again - Silvia could not have been easier to communicate with. She called us the day before to double check our arrival time, text me the day of to let me know she was going to be there waiting for us...and when we rang the bell and started up the stairs - she popped her head out to greet us! Since we weren't leaving until early afternoon the day we left, she let us leave our luggage packed and ready to go in the entrance, so the cleaning lady could come in, but we didn't have to worry about storage! That made our last day in Florence SO much more relaxing, we could cram in as much fun as possible before we left, and not worry about dragging around our suitcases!
Florence is my favorite kind of city, the small kind! It made booking a place to stay much easier. I knew nothing was going to be too far, so we focused on price and view, and worried less about exactly where we were staying. We stayed about as far north in the city as possible (the marked A), while still being remotely "central"...and were still able to walk to Piazza Michelangelo, the furthest possible point on this map, in the bottom right corner by the Giardino delle Rose, in under 20 minutes! We did it twice in our two day stay, thats how incredible the view is! All the main sights are between us and Piazza Michelangelo, so we were easily able to walk to all of our destinations.
Rome:
Our final destination was the biggest city, and the one we knew the least about...Rome! We probably had the hardest time deciding on where to stay here as well. I spent a long time discussing it with my roomie from college - who has been to Rome a number of times. I used her suggestions and experience from where she had stayed and where the major sights were to get a general idea of where we wanted to be. The problem with Rome, is that it is so much bigger! Katie assured me we could still walk everywhere, since that is what she and her parents did when they were there. That helped me put things into perspective when looking at this giant map of an unknown city. There are SO many things to see and do in Rome that is was also a bit overwhelming! We wanted to be able to fit as much as possible in. We ended up choosing this place below...in the middle of Trastevere. It was a little more reasonable in price than being right in the heart of the city, near Piazza Navona, etc...and Martin had the BEST reviews. I loved his honest and candid description. He describes it as tiny, not small because Americans have complained - and he doesn't want any unpleasant surprises - so I expected tiny and was pleasantly surprised! We paid $144 a night, with a $100 security deposit that we got back the day we left.
I was a little worried, because as you can tell on this map, it isn't very close to any of the main attractions: the Vatican is way to the left, the Colosseum is pretty far to the right, and Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain are all across the river in the middle of everything. As it turned out, I think this was the perfect way of doing things! By being not right next to one particular thing, it made us a manageable walk to everything! We were able to divide our visits up, and stop at home in the middle of the day without any trouble! Trastevere was such a unique place to stay too, being the older part of the city...it had so many unique shops and restaurants to explore.
This was us arriving at our apartment - so excited! and THRILLED because we spoiled ourselves with a taxi right to the door from the train station. The BEST PART of this apartment, by far, was the fact that Martin and his sister grew up in Rome, so they had so much experience and so much advice for us. I emailed Elizabeth to ask about the easiest route from the station to the apartment with public transportation and she immediately suggested a cab. This is the email I got back below - which made us feel totally comfortable with what to expect. and bonus - the cab was less than 10 Euro!! Worth every stinking penny to not have to lug our suitcases onto a public bus.
Look at that precious window - everything is prettier in Italy, I swear. The woman who lives upstairs met us in the apartment to give us a tour and our key - and told us to call if we needed anything! Then we were on our own to explore.
Now the grand tour: as I said, this was definitely the smallest and most basic of our apartments....but we aren't trying to live in luxury people, we're trying to explore the city!! You walked into the kitchen first (sorry, I don't know what Ant is doing in this picture...) We were greeted with a bottle of wine welcoming us to Rome!
There was a small hallway with a bathroom, which then led to the living room/bedroom. We kept the bed out the whole time, but you could turn it into a sofa if you wanted to. The door behind the bed led to a small terrace as well.
They included all the necessary things in the small apartment, like an iron! At this point in the trip most of our stuff was a mess. As you can tell, we also made quite the mess of the place - with luggage everywhere.
Again, everything that the apartment lacked as far as aesthetics, was more than made up for in the knowledge we received from Martin and Elizabeth. Ant and I were all about making the most of our time there - which included not wasting our time with bad tourist Italian food. When I emailed them for suggestions - this is the response I got back in no time. Are you kidding me!! It doesn't get any better. Detailed descriptions of a variety of places to eat, from pizza joints to real roman trattorias...to the best gelato around! We used their recommendations for more than one meal - and benefited so so much from their advice. Trattoria Da Enzo, one of the ones listed below, was by far our best meal in Italy. and their advice about reservations saved us from major disappointment - we had to book two nights in advance!! It was so special to have such real local advice while we were in the city - we had the best virtual tour guides! This was some of the stuff I had read about in the positive reviews, and we were not disappointed.
The last thing they offered, which we took advantage of was a car service to get you to the airport. They had a set fee that you paid, and they called and set the car service up for you with a pick up time at the apartment based on your flight. We knew we were going to be tired at the end of the trip, and decided to use this service so we didn't have to worry about calling a taxi, or figuring out public transportation....and what a good call that was! Like clockwork the guy showed up at the door, helped us with our suitcases, and drove us right to our gate - he already had all our information so there were no issues about where we were going! He was so professional - piece of cake! These kinds of above and beyond options you don't always see with AirBnb - but they made such a difference!!! They offered all kinds of other services as well - from filling your fridge with food before you got there, to Italian cooking classes and guided tours - but we are more the DIY sort of tourists...so we didn't take advantage of those options....but if you like some extra pampering I would trust these guys 100%!
So those were the places we called home while in Italy! What do you think? Would you ever consider using a site like AirBnb? Are you more of a budget or comfort kind of traveler? ....and how on earth do you decide where to stay when going to an unfamiliar place?? Ant and I only had good things to say about our experience with AirBnb....but there is something to be said about a nice plush bed & room service sometimes!!
I love talking travel....and all this talk makes me want to go back! Where in Europe would you go if you could book a trip tonight?
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