At last, a room that leaves room in the budget

While I was writing letters of inquiry, I ran across one more rental website, one that allowed you to make inquiries directly to the owners, so I selected about five that were small and in the area I wanted and somewhere within shouting distance of my price range. Three of them came back with preposterous quotes – one was 20% more than the quoted daily rate even after a discount, but one? Yes, one of them was pretty much exactly what I wanted although maybe a bit smaller than I’d hoped for, but with a correspondingly small 10 day rate.
At last, I had located an affordable shelter and I can begin to put the rest of the trip together. The apartment, a very tiny studio, is in a 16th century building, recently renovated with excellent reviews by prior renters. It’s in the recently rediscovered Monti area of Rome, between the Termini station and the Colosseum in an area that used to be a slum and red light district in the 18th and 19th centuries. I have already sent a deposit, balance due at check in and am entirely completely delighted. And spent a couple of hours on Google maps looking at the street – narrow and authentically shabby – and nearby businesses. There’s even an Internet café a few doors down and a laundry across the street and down a bit.