L'Anfiteatro Nascosto

Disappointing
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
  : First, let's start with the good here. Fantastic location of this property. Check in and check out was super easy. Once we figured out how to jiggle the keys right, access to apartment with the key was good. Property manager very nice and communicative. It is indeed an historic building and a unique property. Lovely view of top church at end of the street. Good size apartment with ample bedding (upstairs single, sofa bed and double bed). Loved the rapido cycle of the washing machine. You can tell whoever owns this older property has put in a lot of loving effort to make it comfortable and appealing. And that works, up to the point it doesn't.
  : A few things here unfortunately. 1) I research a property pretty carefully before I book it. No where in my research prior to booking of this one did I see any mention of 81 steps with no elevator. Had I seen that I most certainly would not have stayed here, particularly given the fact that my travel partner had a sprained ankle and we had heavy luggage. 2) The air conditioner in the apartment is way too small for the size of the apartment and requires that you drain the water for it to work properly and our stay coincided with very hot days. For some reason, on night one, the heater decided to turn on as well making it very hot. It turned off thankfully and did not come back on. Again, property manager very responsive here but our nights here were sweaty ones. 3) The coffee plug did not fit the wall socket. I recommend Michelangelos Cafe- a couple blocks away- for that along with their amazing croissants. 4) Expect loud street noises well into the AM of tourist season here but that's to be expected given the prime location. 5) Finally, the mop used by whoever cleans the apartment smelled so strong (in a bad way) in the kitchen area that we had to literally cover the mop head with a bag to stop the smell in the whole apartment. That worked, but they should get a new mop. Please.

Wonderful
Traveller Type: Traveling as Couple

Pleasant
Traveller Type:
  : Location
  : 3rd Floor is Really Hight Step Ladder and Really not easy if u r traveling with big or many lauggage

Very Good
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
  : the size was great and the location very comfortable inside the apartment
  : the front door was very difficult to open. many stairs to climb as on the 4th floor and no lift. very noisy as windows face an open square area where young people gather at night. they sing and shout play music most nights until 2am, very difficult to sleep. shower temperature and pressure not great

Good
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
  : Cute Florentine apartment! Great location right next to Piazza Santa Croce. Had lots of stairs, but fine for us.
  : Had some difficulty with keys, and with interior gate. Mirror in bathroom was not the best. Was more of a decorative mirror, better used in another room. Not good for bathroom because was distorted. Just one more note, for those not used to a rustic yet typical Italian shower... No step in or curtain. Water showers directly onto bathroom floor with drain.

Good
Traveller Type:

Fair
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
  : location was excellent, close to all the attractions.
  : The building is very old and the room facilities are outdated. The wall is like paper thin, we can hear everything: the neighbors walking upstairs, talking outside, they are extremely loud, plus the noise on the street. We can hear it at night even with earplugs.

Good
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
  : Location is perfect, room is clean and cozy.
  : No one has warned that there is no lift, and a long steps. So it was very difficult with the luggages especially for my mom. But anyway everything could be perfect if not the case that happened during checkout. The code that host provided to check out from the room does not work. So we almost missed our train. We decided to go out earlier, to have a nice walk towards the train, but 40 minutes spent on trying to contact the property owner. Then finally a neighbor went out from her apt, and I asked to local call from her phone as well. No one replied. We were so crazy, so she suggested us just to drop off the key and close the door. So we did like this, but anyway were so nervous, that something can go wrong and host will not be able to open the door. We were running for our train.

Disappointing
Traveller Type: Traveling as Couple
  : Very central location, close to several touristic highlights, cafs, restaurants, etc.. We were there at the end of March and didn't experience any disturbing noise from the street (as opposed to other reviewers). Nice view on Santa Maria Croce.
  : Given that we spent more than usual for this accomodation, and also more than other similar accomodations in Florence, we were clearly disappointed by our stay at Anfiteatro Nascosto. After getting access to the building, we still found ourselves before a locked gate which prevented us from getting to the keybox. The owners didn't seem to be aware of this? The gate also had to be unlocked when exiting the building, so with only one set of keys, it wasn't possible to leave at separately and meet-up in town. (Tip: when leaving, put your arms through the gate and unlock it from the outside.) The instructions from the owners required us to take our trash out at the end of our stay and dump it in the bins outside. We never found those bins and had to use a public trash can instead (which is probably illegal?). The shower is simply in a corner of the bathroom, without a "shower cabin". This isn't a big deal, but a squeegee would have been useful to dry the floor after showering. The kitchen often had a faint smell of cigarette. The living room / bedroom area had an automatic air freshener going off ever twenty minutes or so (with a loud "pwish"), which probably was there to mask the smell. Several objects and surfaces in the kitchen (e.g. cabinets, kettle) felt a bit sticky to the touch. The cups looked so dirty that we didn't dare to use them. The floor wasn't very clean, we frequently found dust in corners or along the walls. We very nearly ran out of toilet paper. For a four-night stay, we usually don't expect to have to buy toilet paper.

Good
Traveller Type: Solo Traveler
  : location was great
  : no elevator and the heating system was not very good