Renting an Apartment in a European City, i.e. Florence
For those who want to stay in a foreign city or town more than a few days www.italybyowner.com is the way to go. My adult daughter Thea and I rented a 4th floor apartment in an old medieval house right in the center of Florence for ten days last fall.
“I love this flat,” we kept saying to each other each time we returned to our flat. We were a block from the huge center square Piazza del Signoria, where each day we walked past the replica of Michelangelo’s “David” in front of the Palazzo Vecchio and smoothed our shoes over the spot where the anti-Art Savonarola was burned at the stake in 1497.
In our living room we lounged on a huge red futon and comfy armchair. A large table, covered with our books and papers stretched out under the crank mullioned windows across the room.. Antique tables and armoires were stuffed with supplies, and the walls were decorated with tasteful art, modern abstract to prints of Greek classical figures. The galley kitchen was the start of a long hallway that led to an old, thick wooden door with an enormous switch lock that clicked five times whenever we turned the key. We’d seen a similar lock at the Bargello Museum nearby. Our bedrooms, decorated with Ikea type furniture and wall units were in the back. Several times we did our laundry in the very modern little washer set discreetly off in a closet like room, and hung our clothes on the racks provided.
Ponte Vecchio Bridge, the main thoroughfare to the Oltrarno, the other side of the Arno, was two blocks away. We crossed it many times, but also walked along the river to the less crowded bridges just east and west of it
We spent one quarter of what it would have cost for a standard hotel room, and the apartment came with so many perks
