200 years and counting

I am now the very proud tenant of an apartment in downtown Florence, only 10 minutes on foot from the Duomo.
The place in question is in a building from the early 1800s, and has, amongst other things, a terrace with a view of the gardens below, a fireplace that is usable in the kitchen, and a four poster bed. It's pretty amazing.
The thing that really blows me away though, is its age. The building, and thus the apartment, is from the early 1800s. This means that I will soon be residing in a place that is older than the oldest (at least the oldest Western-type) building in Hong Kong - the LegCo building which was built in 1847. Its pretty incredible.
The process of renting an apartment is never easy, and here in Italy its no exception. The agency were good, and negotiated on my behalf with the landlady, which was not a simple procedure. And of course the money that needs to be paid up front is prohibitive at best, but I think it will all be worth it.
I am even planning to organise a house-warming drinks party with some of the people from work. (I still haven't managed to make friends outside of work in Florence.)
Opposite me, my neighbours are related to the trainer of the Florentine football team, so the agent said that sometimes there are Fiorentina football players coming and going. They could certainly get an invitation to come in for a drink or 2, although it would be great if they could leave at home the purple shell-suits that I saw them sporting this evening - not exactly the sartorial elegance you would expect from an Italian team.