Il Carmine Charme & Terrace with AC

The location was second to none, right in the middle of the old city. One of the best restaurants was right next to the flat. The kitchen, although very old fashioned, worked extremely well. The host was very helpful and gave us a lot of useful info.

The property came with a free parking space, but this turned out to be a good 20 minute walk to the outside of the city walls. The property is a lovely period building, but all rooms very dark with poor lighting, and the terrace furniture was quite old and literally falling apart.

Everything, but especially the host. Very friendly and helpful. Gave us a ride to our car when we left, took the time to share a lot of useful information with us

Nothing

Casa molto ampia in posizione strategica

It was a roomy and traditionally charming apartment with a lovely terrace (that we would have used a lot if the weather had been warmer – we were there in mid-November). The bed was comfortable. It was quiet despite its location right in the historic center of Lucca. A good restaurant (one of several recommended by our host) was right outside the front door. It was in walking distance to everything we wanted to see in the city.

Our stay was unfortunately timed for when our host was away. A neighbor said that he is usually almost always there. Because of his absence, we didn’t have the in-person benefits of a helpful host, such as pick up at the train station or help with the luggage up the stairs that others have described. However, he always responded to communications in a timely, helpful, cordial and friendly manner. Still, there were some aspects of our stay that might have been better if he had been there. The main thing is that the apartment was quite cold. When first asked about that, our host suggested opening the radiator valves. But it turned out they were open and that didn't help. When asked again the next day, he had recourse to asking a neighbor-tenant to adjust the thermostat, which had been set quite low - after that the temperature was fine. I caught a bit of a cold there....Another thing is that the rather steep three flights of stairs are a challenge if one has a lot of luggage - but we managed.