Raffo Rosso

The apartment itself had plenty going for it: the booking went smoothly, the owner was attentive and punctual, and the place was clean, freshly painted, and well furnished. The building, location, and neighborhood were all fine too. But people mostly come here to sleep, and the bed was broken and sharp. The pillow was dusty as well. When she showed us around, the owner kindly pointed out a bottle of water in the fridge. It was only half a liter of sparkling water for four of us, which felt a bit much to make a point of. Even though the cap was sealed, it had a strange smear on it, as if the bottle had been buried in the ground. There’s free Wi-Fi and a huge living room with two sofas, but the 14-inch screen looked like a photo frame from across that space. Luckily, Booking.com gave me a much lower price than the owner had quoted when I contacted her directly. To get some sleep on the second night, we used the solution shown in the photo. The photos also make it clear that the gap between the bed’s central support and the slat is several centimeters, when the slat should actually rest on top of it.