Overall this trip was ammmmmazzzing! There were many things to love about each and every place! But what would we do differently next time?
Not wait too long to go back! Europe is a walking experience and difficult at best for the elderly and handicapped. Go while you still have good mobility and ability to manage long days & hours upon hours of walking & standing on your feet. It is an experience that everyone should have so save your pennies and do it while you can. Life is way too short!
While we had perfect weather...only one morning of brief rain in our three week trip... We would never go again in Europe's high tourist season which, according to locals, starts in mid-April and runs thru October. The crowds EVERYWHERE were massive and overwhelming. There were hundreds of thousands of students on their school trips and an equal number of people just like us picking prime time visits. We will probably opt for a March experience next time and deal with some chillier temps.
In general we love the idea of Air B & B. We have now used them in two different trips and 5 different cities. Opting to use rental apartments is not for everyone but it works out fabulously for us for the following reasons:
- We like the larger spaces as opposed to the smaller foreign hotel rooms. We like having a separate living room for relaxing or to go to during the nights when you are awake & adjusting to time zone differences and don't want to wake your spouse or other companions.
- We can be as messy or as tidy as we want and don't have to worry about making supreme efforts to secure valuables before the maid service comes in each day. There isn't any maid service!
- The apartment stay gives us a more authentic experience of that city. We shop in their grocery stores, visit their post offices, walk their residential streets and eat in their neighborhood restaurants.
- We are able to cook and eat some meals in...particularly breakfast. Europe is carbohydrate heaven when it comes to grab & go breakfasts...amazing croissants & sweet breads but we need protein to carry us through long days so we always purchased eggs and ate breakfasts in.
- Generally staying in an Air B & B is less expensive than hotels. On an average we spent $220 per night for a two bedroom, two bath apartment split between two couples = $110 US dollars per couple. Everything was prepaid so there was no need to worry about settling up hotel bills or placing high charges on your credit cards when you checked out.
- Apartments with washing machines allow us to bring less clothing and smaller suitcases which ease our transfers between cities and onto & off trains. We used one small carry-on size bag for each person plus one additional single smaller bag for toiletries per couple. We learned to wash clothes on the first evening in a new city as this allowed the clothing to dry thoroughly before it needed to be packed up for the next leg of the trip. (Our Paris location had a dryer but none in Italy did...)
Obviously it takes mega, MEGA amounts of time on the Air B and B website to read through all of the offerings and each of the helpful reviews but we had fun doing it and, while there were minor kinks in some of the choices, we were thrilled overall with using this type of lodging.
Here's our itemized review of each choice:
Air B & B Lodgings in Paris: * Grade - A++++ . Fabulous location, 10 minute walk to Metro; Eiffel Tower 5 Minutes. Lovely residential neighborhood. Full kitchen with cooktop and oven; washer and dryer. Owner left us milk, and basics in the fridge..ketchup, butter, etc. nice because we didn't need to shop for those items. Probably the biggest plus was that the owner left a binder full of information... Lists and phone numbers of English speaking neighbors and friends that live nearby in case we had an emergency...Good neighborhood restaurants that have English menus; location of the nearest bus & metro stops, the cheapest grocery stores within walking distance, appliance instructions, English-speaking taxi companies, etc. We loved that we could shop in quaint local neighborhood stores & bakeries and that we were able to eat some meals "in". This has given us a more authentic & realistic taste of life in Paris....not only would we trust Air B & B to book another stay, we definitely would stay at Patty's place! https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/30969Cons: No air conditioning. I would be concerned about the heat in the summer time... There is some significant street noise during the busy hours but it does quiet down around midnight. We were fine because we left windows open for ventilation but it was May and not hot...Loved, loved, loved Paris. Yes, the people can be somewhat cool and aloof to non-French speaking tourists but they were, for the most part, helpful and accommodating. The city is spotless. It's a well laid out city. Metro and bus stops conveniently located. Just a fabulous visit!
Hotel Una in Catania: *Grade - B+. Great rooftop bar/restaurant, super nice employees. Beautiful modern interiors. Our only hotel stay on this trip.Cons: Small/tiny rooms...hardly a spot to leave one open suitcase never mind two. Poor bathroom lighting, Very congested location in chaotic downtown Catania. Catania is a college town literally crawling with people on the sidewalks and the roads every night of the week! Drivers are bizarre but probably are somewhat justified because people walk in the middle of the streets. Visitors beware. If we ever go back...which we probably will as Sicily was surprisingly our second favorite stop....we will stay outside of the city where you don't have to be on high-alert every moment you step outside. We will definitely use a driver again every day for our entire stay...and it will always be Simone.... (See our post on May 13 entitled "The Best Money Spent in Sicily ~ Simone!" for his contact information.)
Air B & B Venice *Grade B. Great location next to a Vaparetto (Water Bus) stop, 10 minutes from St. Mark's Square...away from crowds but convenient to most venues. Lovely old building...wish we knew it's history! tiny but efficient elevator. Grocery store in a back piazza. Air conditioned. Beds were comfy, and the apartment was clean.Cons: No owner's binder with helpful info. Owner was away but her mother (who we nicknamed 'Sleuth'...she seemed to turn up in every common hallway, or on the porch smoking her cigarette) greeted us with a suspicious eye to give us a very brief rundown of the apartment. She apparently lives in an adjacent apartment. Secondary bath was tiny with an RV-sized shower that unintentionally soaked the bathroom from corner to corner when used. Second bedroom was in an awkward area one huge step up from the main living room. The "step" was an upholstered wood box that would shift if not stepped on properly. Scary descents from what we called the princess tower! And the Internet service was terrible! Minimal kitchen utensils and equipment, No oven. Cooktop and microwave only.I would look for another Venice apartment if we were going again but could consider this one IF the internet service was fixed and consistently working. When owners don't leave detailed info & maps we rely heavily on the Internet for information. For us this was a huge disappointment and drawback.Loved Venice...definitely would go back! It's a city unlike any other!
Air B & B Florence *Grade C-. Great centralized Florence location in the heart of their main shopping area. Ten minutes from the train station, museums were 5-15 minute walk away. Duomo 5 minutes. Convenient grocery stores. Prices to me seemed to be less in Florence for food, clothing and shoes. Cute apartment. Washing machine, air conditioned. Interesting building...I think it has always been an apartment building because of it's room configurations. Microwave, cooktop, no oven. Safe provided for valuables, extra cash, etc. No owners binder but there were onsite personnel every day from 9-4 if we needed assistance with anything.Cons: Large flights of steep entry stairs. Our place was considered to be on the second floor but it was really the third floor. (The main level is G for ground; the next is 1, etc). The elevator starts up on the first floor so this is definitely NOT the best choice for someone with knee or hip problems. The marble steps are shallow and angled down which makes a need for focused navigation. Plus once you made it up those two sets of steep entry stairs the elevator didn't work that well and was really useless for transporting your luggage the rest of the way. Tiny showers! Turn around to rinse your backside and your elbow shuts off the water. Worse yet it shoots it up to boil! Bare, bare, bare kitchen. No salt, no pepper, no coffee. And this may be the biggest con..there were visible roaches on the entry level who were not shy about making appearances! Its a building probably 200+ years old...if not more?..and it's dark, dark, entry hallway is probably an inviting hangout for these creatures. We saw absolutely none on the upper floor hallways, nor any in our apartment which was immaculately clean and bug free. But it did make us keep an eye out!
We loved the apartment but definitely would not stay here again because of the steep flights of stairs and the potential roach problem.
We wouldn't hesitate to go back to Florence but would stay outside the city in Tuscany or Sienna and take day trips into the city for museum visits, etc.
Air B & B Rome *Grade A. Great location if you want to be near Vatican City. Clean, clean, clean two-bedroom, two bath apartment. Microwave, cooktop, dishwasher, no washing machine. Comfy beds, nice living room. Good & dependable Internet service.
Cons: Minimal & poor kitchen utensils (dull knives, etc). Cheap Ikea stools that were bent out of shape and in one case, unusable. No owner's binder with important & helpful information. An email sent during our stay requesting info went unanswered. Horrendous screeching followed by vibrating slams from the building's main entry door. Loud enough to wake one out of a deep sleep. I don't know how anyone lives day-to-day with that horrendous sound. It made me want to go and buy a can of WD40!
We probably would not stay again in this apartment because of the tie-ups around the Vatican. Our main avenue to access the other areas of Rome necessitated a walk each day through Vatican Square and the crowds were absurd & ridiculous. The Vatican traffic personnel at times very rude. It was impossible to get a bus, and the Bernini House location isn't conveniently located near a Metro stop.
If we are to be honest, we probably would never come to Rome again because to us we didn't find it to be a visitor-friendly city. It's reputation for being a dirty and 'gamey' city is well-earned, and its crowds just sweep you along to places where you didn't necessarily intend to go. When we were able to use the metro the stops for the major attractions were jam-packed with hoards of people who think that pushing and shoving are acceptable methods of inserting themselves onto a train. Gypsy women using their babies as pitiful bait go around begging behind you on the crowded trains looking for a way to slide their hands into your purses. Go to Rome once. Hop onto a bus and get an overview of the city. Visit the Coliseum, Vatican City, St Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum, and perhaps the Jewish Ghetto. And then you can cross that city off your bucket list. Been there; done that. (We have the name of an excellent local guide that can help you get the important highlights of the entire Vatican experience...he will not remember us because we were part of a small group but we would highly recommend using him. You leave Vatican City feeling like you had a very thorough overview of that large & overwhelming attraction...Eros "Francesco" Giansanti +39.335.52.75.267 Email: erosgiansanti@katamail.com.)
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