🤗 Be Welcome in Firenze

my e-mail address for contacts: leo5u701@trail.it

If you arrived here it is because you wanted to come in my home.
We say "patti chiari amicizia lunga" (clear pacts, long lasting friendship), so read carefully:

When can I host you ? home

Note for groups of 3 to 9 people: One room has 2 beds that can be set as single or double, and I assign that ones or to two single people or to a couple alone, but I may also give all the four places to a group, if they accept to stay all in the same room.
These two extra places do not appear in the availability, since are available only for groups. so if you are 3 and find only 2 places, or 4 or more and find only n-2 places, feel free to send a request that place should be available!
The dates for which I can take in account requests at this time are:

my e-mail address for contacts: leo5u701@trail.it

How much time can I host you ?

Preferred stay is 2 to 4 nights, but i can make exceptions

How can you improve the chances to be my guest ? home

Normally i will confirm once we have had an e-mail exchange and all personal informations; according the period of the year I may have one to four rooms available for guests.
Only two have single beds, so, if you are more than one person, when requesting, tell me if you prefer single or double beds. If you say that is just a preference for single or double, but not a costraint, this would help a lot.
In case you are asked only for single beds, tell me if you accept to share the big room, that has four single beds.

In your request please state clearly the exact date and approximate time you expect to arrive, and also date and time you plan to leave.
You will ease avoiding error if you include arrival date in the subject of the e-mail, also if you have already booked the train/bus/plane tell its number.
Include also the list with complete names and e-mail of all the people in the party, as well at least one working GSM phone number that I can use to call you while arriving and. -very important- an indication if some of you have dietary constraints.
I will consider the request complete only when I will have all these informations

"dates are flexible" does mean that in case I had no availability in the day[s] you ask, rather than declining, I may offer you an option to shift dates, not that you may change dates last minute!.
Once accepted, the dates become fixed.
I expect that, unless differently specified, that you reply after my confirm message no later than 2 days, if arrival date is more than 2 week apart, 24 hours in the other cases but within 3 hours if request were sent less than 48 hours before arrival (keep phone on, if last minute I may directly call you)

Note that if you ask to change the dates - except if you asked 3 or 4 days and you reduce to 2 or 3 in the same period- after i have confirmed, not necessarily means that you will still be accepted.

What if we are a large group ? home

I can host even groups of 5 or more people, up to 8: since I am one of the few ones in my town that is able to host such a large group, to give them more chances I may also accept requests for dates more than 5 weeks ahead, up to a reasonable future. (but see notes on availability after the general availability calendar at beginning)
However such large groups should plan their arrival only on tuesday wednesday friday or saturday (or thursday or sunday, but only if before 1045).

What can I offer ? home

• I am able to get you around on most Thursday mornings and sometime on weekends
• I am in east part of town, about 20 minutes by transit to the center (or 4 km walking or cycling)
  click here to visualize a map of the area
• Breakfast is at 740(MTuWF)/845(ThSS), dinner usually around 2130
• In Italy communal meal with guest is an institution, and many people come to my house for the "kitchen sharing" so your host will expect guests to share at least one main meal together, two if they stay more than 2 night.
  More details on meal sharing HERE
• In general omnivore diet. There are every month 6 vegetarian friendly days, listed in the general availability calendar, when vegetarioan people may ask to have vegetarian food, while in all the other days who will cook has the right to decide what to cook.
• House policy says that when there is no people of the family, even the guests are out. If I want not to be late at work, I have to exit from home at 08:00 on Mon-Tue-Wed-Fri, while on Mon and Thur i won't be home before 20:30, unless there is a prearranged plan.
• Free internet access.
• If you have bicycles you can use my garage.

What i am asking you ? home

Some people complained that i had too many rules: i wrote the rules here, so you can decide if they are reasonable for you and then send me a request or not:

• Send always a SMS message of confirm 3-4 days in advance, including your estimated time of arrival, if you don't not only I cannot help with logistics, but I will cancel your request.
  I will reply ASAP, if for some reason you do not get a reply within two hours please call me on voice since sometimes roaming SIMs do not work correctly with SMS.
• on Mon Tue Wed Fri i have to leave to work at 08:05, guests leave with me.
  Do not make me be late!
• if you plan not to stay with me for dinner on one of the evenings, please tell me at least 3 days in advance. (preparation of certains typical food certain times spans on more days and I don't want to throw away food).
  for last minute requests of course people should be ready to get what has been prepared, so if you have alimentary constraints tell me when you send the first request.
• We will share expense for food; people that stay 3 or more days or are a group of 3 or more even just for two days is expected to cook at least one day. think about your recipe and try to stay under 3,20 EUR per person as respect for other guests that could be traveling on thight budget. (average expense in 2014 has been 2,46 eur incluidng drinks)
  In that case think about a recipe from your region, and take a list of ingredients with quantities in weight, this would help in buying the right quantity and adapt according the number of people that evening.
• If you want to change the day of arrival or leave, unless it is a shortening of less than 50% of the original stay expect to renegotiate availability
• do not smoke in the house, nor in the balcony
• The guests have one bathroom all for them. also cleaning is left to them, so keep it clean, for the people that come after you.
• do not contaminate recycle bins (or you have to clean it too)
• do not take anything out of kitchen (glasses can be get lost or broken in strange places, food could have been a key ingredient for next dinner)
• if you help cleaning in the kitchen never put knives in dishwasher, on the other part plastic and glass cannot be safely washed by hand
• do not open the window in the dining room unless you remain inside that room ready to close it. (if there is just a bit of wind current will be strong and internal doors can slam and be damaged)

to get a quicker reply - Last minute requests home

When you send a request or reply to a last minute invitation, to be sure to get a quick reply always send an email to the address that appear at beginning of this page, specifying there your username and adding the e-mail addresses of all other travelmates, and expecially your cell phone number
Remember when you send arrival and leaving dates that, unless differently written, one assume that you arrive at my home between 2000 and 2030 on the arrival day, and leave around 0800 on departure date (too many people set as end day the last night, so actually end requesting a day less than they expect).

If you send a request very close to arrival date remember to reply, in your request, to the question about the kind of bed that you prefer, the time you plan to arrive and leave and if you have food intolerances. This would help to know immediately if there are problem or on the other side accept immediately.

I will try to reply to your request in the shortest time possible, but since I receive more requests than I can accommodate (Firenze has a lot of people coming ...) I have to ask also you to be quick in replying, so to be helpful to as many people is possible.
So, if it is a request more than 8 days in advance, I can wait for your reply even 24 hours, but if you require a couch in short advance I ask you to reply within a few hours, in general I will wait ⅛ of the time remaining to your arrival (1 to 6AM is neutralized).
If I will not receive an answer within that time and have other requests I will consider it cancelled.
If you expect not to have internet access for some time please post in your message a note about when you will be able to read the message.
If I think we need a quicker turnaround in replies, I will send you a SMS, to be replied quickly, or will call you, so please keep the phone on: sometimes i need some immediate clarification, or I had problem replying by e-mail.

I am not picky if all person in the group have not a personal profile (i am happy with the ones on BEWELCOME or WARMSHOWERS, but not with ones on FaceBook or HC), if the person that make the request has an adequate hospitaly exchange experience, but i ask as a minimum the person that make the request to indicate name, gender, age, place of origin and languages spoken, beside a personal contact, for each one in the group.
In particular I ask that all the people in the group share a common language with me.

If you are one of the people that do not want to have a cellphone, or do not want to give to other people their personal number you can buy a SIM just for the trip!, otherwise I will be usually unable to host you, expecially on last minute or when you arrive in the evening. If there is more then one group for dinner not knowing where they are when they are late is not nice. For this reason usually I accept phone-less people only if they arrive before lunch.