(by Carol)
I knew that the apartment that I had rented for the month was small. I knew that it was up a flight of stairs. I knew, too, that it was just around the corner from the Kent State University Florence Institute, where I would be teaching four nights each week. There was much that I didn’t know.
Looking down from atop the first flight of six steps; looking up from the same location.
The landlord could not meet us, so we took a taxi to a place called Keesy, a place (as the commercial indicates) makes giving keys and instructions to the apartment dwellers easy. Getting the keys was easy enough, but we had to download an app for any instructions and I do not have a phone here in Europe; I didn’t think I would need one. We took another taxi. The apartment isn’t far from our hotel, but we had luggage, so we took a taxi. The next challenge was to get in, but with some fiddling we entered the first door into a small dark hallway. We piled our luggage at the bottom of the stairs, and I climbed up to the next floor to try the next key. It didn’t work. Then I realized that the door didn’t look right either, so I climbed up to the next floor to a door that looked more like the one I saw in the picture that my landlord had emailed to me. Into that door, with some fiddling of the key, and then into one more door: tada! (Two weeks later: I have noticed that the lock to the lower level door has been replaced!) I did not realize, or maybe I forgot, that Europeans call the first floor “zero” and the second floor is actually the “first” floor and the third floor is actually the “second” floor. Ooops. (There is one apartment to each floor, except the on on our floor was split into two apartments). We began to drag our luggage, and my walker, up the two flights of stairs: two steps, turn, six steps, turn, six steps, turn, two steps, turn, six steps, turn, six steps, turn, two steps and then into the apartment. As we began this ordeal, we lucked out: some people who were staying in an apartment above ours, and they graciously helped us carry everything up.
The apartment was stuffy, hot, and tiny. Fortunately, it has air conditioning! But the place is clearly designed for tall skinny people, from the toilet and shower stall to the kitchen counters. I kid you not: the shower stall is roughly 8′ H, 2.5′ x 2.5′ W! And the one window, located in the kitchen, has this for a view:
Looking out the window: down view, straight out view, up view.
But it’s clean, has a good wi-fi set-up, a bed, a sofa bed, a table, a large dormitory fridge, a gas stove, and a microwave. Plus, it’s just around the corner from where I teach! It has some other nice aspects to its location: several shops, a small grocery store, several cafes, a Subway (ha!), a Chinese restaurant, some other restaurants, AND the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze (Academy of Florence Art Gallery) is just across the intersection!
View from my apartment building’s front door: Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze (Academy of Florence Art Gallery).