Last Apartment Showings

After a light breakfast, Mui called the realtor from Haus Gruppo who had scheduled today’s 10:00a appointment to get the exact address. The woman’s a bit ditsy, I think, since nothing was set up on her end. Anyway, she checked with the agent who has the Via Farini listing and we rescheduled to 11:00a, which gave us a bit of time to dawdle at home.

What can I say about the Via Farini apartment? Spectacular views of the Basilica of San Petronio; the Due Torri; the Sanctuary of San Luca; and so much more over the rooftops of the city. A wonderful terrace with awnings providing shade; a cute loft … perfect for a den. Open plan living space … small but doable. But there was one big problem … a tiny, galley-style kitchenette with a sink barely larger than a medium-sized bowl … suitable perhaps for a single person or a couple who dines out most of the time. Otherwise, the kitchen was woefully inadequate.

It broke our hearts to strike this property off our list, but it just wasn’t doable for us as a long term place. If it was being marketed as an AirBNB, we would have loved staying there a couple of weeks.

Before leaving the place, we asked Mirco, the listing agent, about the Cesare Battisti property for which his office manager had sent us a link. Turns out that it was one of his listings, but he wasn’t aware that he was supposed to show it to us today. Luckily, after a quick phone call, he was able to set up an appointment for 4:15p.

With time to kill until the showing, we headed back to the AirBNB. Along the way, Mui suggested that we take another look at the Griffoni property with the terrace … the one we had written off. Maybe we could make it work. A quick call to the realtor resulted in a 5:30p repeat showing.

Around 4:00p, we left to meet with Mirco to see the Cesare Battisti property. Admittedly, fairly compact with limited storage space. But recently renovated in an early 20th century building … on the 5th floor … with just a penthouse apartment above it; nice furnishings … an owner — at least according to Mirco — who would be willing to add a few missing pieces. Brand new, we would be the first to rent the place.

The apartment was a winner!

The apartment was now the #1 contender … pending a meeting with the owners to ask and answer questions … and a chance to see the basement storage unit linked to the apartment. Mirco will contact the owners and set up a meeting for Monday.

Although we now felt that we had made a decision, we went to see the Griffoni terrace apartment anyway since we had an appointment to do so. As we remembered, terrace was the highlight … but there was no furniture to utilize and enjoy the space. Very limited furnishings inside … we’d have to buy more stuff than we wanted to. The kitchen needed some work … acceptable, except that the grimy dishwasher had to be replaced. We walked away once again agreeing that it just wasn’t going to work for us.

We returned to the AirBNB for a quiet evening. Having had enough of apartment comparisons for today, we shelved any further discussions until tomorrow. We’ll weigh pros and cons, and make a list of questions to be answered.

It feels good to be wrapping up the hunt for a suitable apartment with two contenders … the Griffoni apartment without the terrace being #2 on our list.Read more