First the good news: The location couldn't be better and the rental company (and especially our contact, Adriana) were truly outstanding. Prior to our visit, I e-mailed back and forth with Adriana many times, finalizing our plans and making dinner reservations. Adriana was exceptionally helpful and responsive. Two of the excellent nearby restaurants that she booked for us were Osteria Il Pegno and Osteria del Sostegno. The neighborhood was full of quaint little restaurants and cafes. It was also very convenient to Piazza Navona and the Vatican. I wish I could give the apartment itself a better review.
On the downside, the property was very tired and had clearly seen better days. Of course I realized that we were renting an apartment in a very old building, but I had expected the charm to outweigh the age of the place. Unfortunately, the best word that I could use to describe the apartment is "odd". From the kitchen to the common areas to the bedrooms, it was chock-full of so many oddities. The living room and dining room were incredibly spacious and interesting. The kitchen was far from practical and could use some major updating. Fortunately, the only meal that we ate in the apartment was breakfast, but there were not even enough glasses for each of us to have a glass of water and a glass of orange juice at the same time. The bedrooms were a mishmash of pieces of furniture. The beds themselves were comfortable, but fresh white linens on the beds could have gone a long way toward making the bedrooms feel inviting. Instead, each bed had one fitted sheet and a comforter without a top sheet. As I lay in bed each night, I kept hoping that the comforter got washed between rentals. The third bedroom, which was located a distance from the other two, was most likely the servants quarters back in the day and was very shabby. I certainly wouldn't have slept in it. In fact after the first night, my two young adult sons opted to share the second bedroom rather than have one of them sleep in it.
The master bathroom was huge with an enormous shower. Unfortunately, the shower water took ages to heat up and it came out in a trickle. It was challenging to rinse the shampoo out of my hair.
Despite the apartment's shortcomings, we enjoyed our time in that corner of Rome and I would happily rent a different property from Commendable Rome.