The apartment is beautiful; furnishings and equipment were outstanding and comfortable; convenient to major sights and squares, with great access to bars, restaurants, and shops.
The only drawback to this apartment was the manager. Before giving any kind of indication how we were to check in or find the apartment, he contacted me no less than three times to remind me that we had to have the cleaning fee in cash when we arrived. He was clearly much more interested in getting his cleaning fee than getting us into the apartment.
When we got into the apartment, all the furnishings and appointments were beautiful. However, for the first time in the dozens of vacation rentals, there was no coffee provided. When I asked about it, I was told "I don't think there's any; you'll have to buy it at the supermarket." Nor was there any kind of document anywhere in the apartment listing rules, giving any kind of information about how to run any appliance, what to do with trash or dirty dishes, or any kind of check-out procedure. This, too, is a first in my vacation rental experiences.
In addition, while the manager was aware that we would have three men staying there for three days, only four servings/packets of shower gel were provided.
Perhaps the worst part of the experience came after we checked out. Our agreement through VRBO was that a first payment was to be taken about a month before we checked in, and a second was to be taken about two weeks before check-in. After we checked out, while I was in the Florence train station, trying to find my train , the manager bombarded me with WhatsApp messages, demanding that I immediately pay the rental fee. He apparently had taken neither payment, and when he tried to charge my credit card, he found that my card number had been changed, so he couldn't charge the old card. My card had been compromised about a week earlier, necessitating a change in number. Had the manager taken the payments when he agreed to - several weeks before that - he would have had no problem at all.
He demanded that I take care of it - in his words - "ASAP." Of course, the "emergency" was of his making, because he didn't abide by the agreement we had. After verifying that the payments had indeed not been taken as agreed, which took about 15 minutes, I sent full payment to him (to the non-VRBO website he identified, a SimplyHome address), along with a screenshot. Great apartment, a lacking manager.