L'appartamento

The defining feature of our apartment has to be security. You would not break in easily. You first have to unlock the very heavy door to the street.

Once you are indoor, there is a metal grill, which fortunately is not kept locked.

It is pitch dark inside. There is a light, but it is on a timer. Since we are on the second floor (3rd floor on the North American system) you cannot tarry as you go up, or you find yourself in the dark. There is an elevator big enough for two thin persons. We usually walk up.
Once you get to our landing, you have another locked door.

 Once you have unlocked it, you find yourself in a small hall where you have the doors (plural) to the apartment. First a grill, and then a wooden door.

That wooden door might look simple enough, but in fact it is very heavy and has 8 (eight) steel bars that lock into the jam on each side. Here is a view of the middle bars.

Needless to say, we have quite a selection of keys to open all these.

The floor plan is rather strange. Since there are windows only on one side, there are light wells that do produce some light but mess up the space. As you come in there is a long corridor and the rooms are at the end of it.

The main room is the living room which has two couches facing each other and French doors that opens on the balcony. Notice the metal grill past the doors, with the big lock.

The balcony overlooks all the neighbouring gardens.

The living room also had a library (I think this is what sold that apartment to Lorne). Strangely, 80% of the books are in French, the others in Italian. There are also a few guide books to Florence left here by previous tenants.

I will finish the apartment tour in another post. Across the street from us, 30 feet from the front door, is the entrance to the university. The street is always very busy with students coming in and out.

 To end with, a suggestion for a Christmas gift for children which which seems to us very Italian - a little espresso set!!!