My wife and I will be travelling with my parents to Italy in May, 2010. We are having a difficult time finding and agreeing on an apartment to rent for the first week of our trip. We will be spending this first week, 15 May-22 May, in Florence Our needs are at least 2 bedrooms, at least two bathrooms/showers and a washing machine, as we like to pack lightly and wash as needed. If the apartment is on a higher floor, we would also require an elevator as I think after a few days the stairs might become daunting to my parents. Internet would be welcome, but not necessary and our budget would be around $1000 per couple for the week. We have scoured over many sites, VRBO, Homelidays, Sleep in Italy, etc, have liked a few but nothing is really jumping out. Any suggestions/recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much to all!!

Have you checked slowtrav.com apartment reviews?

Or check - http://www.cyberrentals.com/florence...fa/find.squery

Checked both, thanks for the ideas, though.

My friend and I used florenceandtuscany.com last November and were very happy. We stayed in the Santa Croce apartment, which was perfect for us but the stairs would not be good. One thing about their website is you can search for low floors, which helps. They were easy to deal with and the apartment was just as it was described on their website.

Try: http://www.sleepinginflorence.com/

We had good luck with them. And as ky mentioned, slowtrav has good reviews.

I know they mainly deal with Tuscan villa rentals, but you can try yourtuscany.com. They're very helpful, and Cinzia (ask for her) speaks perfect English and is quite knowledgeable.

My favorite people are italiancollection.com, and though they have a few apartments, they mainly have hotels I think. Still, they DO have suites and such and may be able to help, so it's always worth a look. Sleep in Italy really had nothing? Wow!

And you can always try Venere....

As always, thanks to all for their kind suggestions. The hunt proceeds.