I am a travel writer who has been to Rome a dozen times, but had never stayed in the Gianicolo area, and looked forward to exploring it. Patrizia was very cordial and accommodating when planning the visit of my husband and myself over the holidays. When we arrived she was out of town, and left keys in a lockbox. The bedroom looks like the photos, however, it's the bathroom that's the problem worthy of note. To enter you must walk through the shower, which has three different levels of concrete covered with glazed ceramic tile. So you are walking in your street shoes through the wet shower each time you need the toilet. Very slippery. The most dangerous part, however, is that *inside the shower* is a basin with an electrical outlet. I kept imagining someone standing there in the water, plugging in her hair dryer, then frying like a piece of bacon.
Our personal problems with Patrizia happened when we finally met her on day 9 of our stay, even though she lives next door. I texted that we only had hot water about 50% of the time and she said she'd come over the next morning to check.
As had been the pattern, on Dec. 27 my husband had a lukewarm shower at 9 AM, then shaved in cold water. There was no hot water whatsoever for me to take a shower. (In fact on Christmas Day I had to go out without one to keep our lunch reservation.) When Patrizia and her husband arrived at 1 PM we shook hands; in fact all of our communication up to this point has been perfectly cordial. They went into the bathroom and ran the water for about five minutes, letting gallons of fresh water run down the drain. I could hear she was already shouting something in Italian and her husband was motioning with his hands for her to be calm. She called me into the bathroom and asked me to feel the water. "Is it hot?" I said, it is now, but it's been four hours so I assume the boiler has reheated. She shouted at me, "You do not tell the truth! You say there is no hot water! Here is the hot water! In the instructions I say, you must let the water run to get hot water. Do you know how to read?" I assured her I did. Now everyone moves into the kitchen and my husband says there's no hot water for the dishes. "Forget it," she screams, "there is no hot water in the kitchen! You want to wash dishes you use the kettle!" Here she demonstrates pouring water from the electric kettle into the sink. The situation was so combative and insulting that I had to ask her twice to leave.
