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Staying in Italy: Are short term lets worth it?

Apartments are a great alternative to hotels

I have always been a great lover of all things Italian, the food, the wine and the general lifestyle always struck me as being idyllic. For this reason, my partner and I spend a week or so in Italy every year.

Generally we look for cheap flights, book into a reasonable hotel and off we go. I always find there is something a little too touristy about booking into a hotel, especially as we are frequent visitors, we generally find ourselves feeling like we have cheated. Hotels just don’t seem to give that authentic Italian experience and as my mother is half Italian, well need I say more?

So I had a dilemma, I needed to find a way of spending my holiday in Italy, without feeling like I was doing the dirty on my mother’s heritage. Scouring the internet looking for some cheap property to perhaps invest in, to give me the opportunity to have that home away from home experience, I stumbled across a website for a company called City Base Apartments. They offered short term rental apartments all across Italy and so I asked my partner what she thought. After a short discussion we decided we had nothing to lose in trying a short term let and so we began planning our holiday.

Apartments are a great alternative to hotels
Apartments make a great alternative to hotels

Now, considering the amount of times I had visited Italy, I was quite ashamed to admit I had never visited Rome. Florence, Venice, Verona and Pisa had all been done more than once and so together we decided to book a week in Rome in one of these City Base Apartments.

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I was very sceptical as I had often heard talk of short term lets being quite expensive and not worth the cost, though no one who offered this advice had actually tried a short term let before. It turned out I was pleasantly surprised at how wrong they were.

Upon arriving at our chosen apartment, we were greeted by a woman who showed us into our apartment. She was friendly and welcoming and after a short tour she left us to unpack and we quickly made ourselves at home. The apartment was spacious, fully air-conditioned as advertised, and was decorated to a pretty good standard.

I could go into a lot more detail about the apartment, but I don’t think it is necessary. Needless to say it was to a much better standard than many of the hotels I had previously stayed in on other our holidays in Italy. The location was perfect, close to Rome’s Termini station so we could make use of public transport and close to a couple of impressive monuments. There were plenty of restaurants for us to choose from and we felt the service we received at the apartment was exceptional. I think I would go as far as to say this was one of the most enjoyable holidays my partner and I have experienced.

I had never before considered using a short term let apartment, but now I don’t know if I could go any other way. I shall certainly be revisiting some of our favourite cities in Italy and this time we will definitely be staying in one of the properties offered by City Base Apartments.

By Chris Gold and image also courtesy of Chris Gold NY

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