Eenpersoonskamer in een 3-slaapkamer appartement in Novoli

1. Wi-Fi --- The advertisement says the apartment has Wi-Fi, but there was only a little box that worked like a regular phone. The box had a sim-card, on which the landlady had to put money, so that it works. The first three days I had no Wi-Fi, I kept asking the landlady for her to put money on it, but she kept saying I should try all these different things (trying to reset etc.) I even went to the provider store, but they couldn’t help me either. I moved to a new country, where I didn’t know anyone, and now I didn’t have any way to contact my family or friends. I didn’t have any roommates, and my internship wouldn’t start for another 5 days. --- 2. The landlady --- When I arrived a friend of the landlady opened the door. He gave me a tour of the apartment, but because he hardly spoke English, not everything was clear. There are two other rooms in the house, but those were empty. There was a guy leaving the smallest room on the day I moved in. He told me he learned Italian, just so he could understand the landlady. The landlady and I kept talking but she wanted me to translate everything, instead of her translating everything for me. At one point, she gave me the guy’s number, just because I had so many questions and she couldn’t answer them. --- 3. Water/bathroom --- The water in the apartment only got warm when the heater was on. That was in the morning and late at night. The heater is operated centrally, so you can’t turn it on or off yourself. There is no shower in the bathroom, only a bath. This means that you sit in the bath with the showerhead in your hand, and trust me, it’s not easy to wash your hair like that. After about 10 minutes the warm water would be gone, so you have to bath really quickly, because otherwise you have to do it cold. --- 4. Noise --- There is a new tramline that is being laid since 2014, so I thought it would’ve been done by now, but unfortunately that was not the case. Every morning at 7:00 the workers started, just underneath the balcony. They were drilling and laying the asphalt, so the noise was incredible. And it would wake me every morning. --- 5. Distance --- The advertisement says it’s really near the centre of Firenze, but this is not the case. To take the bus of bicycle to the centre, it’s at least 30 minutes. To Santa Croce it’s 45 minutes. Also, Novoli didn’t really feel like a safe place. In the evenings, in the weekends, there would be prostitutes on the street one block from the house. (Also, my bike got stolen within 10 days of living there. I always locked it very well, unto the street lantern in front of the house. Now, a lot of bikes get stolen in Florence, but I had a very good, expensive lock). --- 6. Post --- I wasn’t allowed to put my name on the post-box. I was expecting a package with books, so I put a little note on the box, saying (in Italian) that I was expecting it and what it looked like, but the landlady removed it. Also, my mother send me a card, but I never got it. Now obviously, this could’ve been the posts fault, but because the house number doesn’t have an addition, and my name wasn’t on the post-box, I think it is more likely that the postman just didn’t know where to put it. --- 7. The house is for sale --- The guy who was leaving when I moved in already told me that he thought the landlady was trying to sell the house. I locked the door to my room every time I left, and apparently, the landlady visited when I wasn’t home, on my 3rd day. She told me to unlock my door so the real-estate agent could take pictures. This was already odd to me, because the pictures I saw on Uniplaces.com where very good. Luckily the big closet can be locked, so I put all my valuables in the closet and locked that. To me this whole situation felt very strange, because I had never met the landlady at this point, and she insisted that she could enter the room any time she wanted. To feel, when you come ‘home’, that there has been someone in your room is so strange. Later one of my friends told me that’s it is actually incorrect (law) to ask that from your tenant. Because when you are paying, it is your property so you can lock the door, but if the landlord comes and asks to come in when your there you can’t decline.

With the bus it's easy reachable. Although it's 30 min away from the city center. There are some supermarkets really near. The appartement was enough clean and fill with all necessary stuff. Unfortunately there was much noise in the streets, because they are building the new tramway.