Appartamenti Ruggini

I booked through Booking.com well ahead of New Year’s Eve in Florence. Then, 15 days before the trip, they messaged to say they couldn’t host us and would try to find a solution within 48 hours. I never heard from them again. Booking.com hadn’t cancelled the reservation when I contacted them, and they offered up to €60 for the trouble. By then, though, everything was incredibly expensive, and even with that money it wasn’t easy to find similar accommodation in the city center.

The apartment was clean and spacious, and the location was ideal. But it was short on equipment: no microwave, no saucepan, and just one fork. Worst of all, the boiler stopped working. We arrived Friday and left Tuesday, and the only time we had hot water was Friday evening. I texted the Booking.com contact number on Saturday and never got a reply.

The location is unbeatable, right behind Palazzo Vecchio. I stayed in early October and it was completely quiet. Ours was Ricardo 5, a duplex with the beds and bathroom upstairs. There are other apartments in the building, and those stairs won’t suit everyone. One of the small beds had a board on top of the frame, so we had to put the mattress on the floor because it wasn’t at all comfortable for anyone over 70 kg. We were only there for two nights and it did the job, but I imagine the top floor gets like an oven in summer.

Dogs are welcome here, and the owner is really kind. The apartment sits in central Florence, in a great, quiet spot, though reaching it means climbing two flights of stairs, which may be difficult for anyone with mobility problems. The rooms could do with updating, too. After the storms over the last few days, water was coming in through the windows.