Orsola's apartment was such a great place to stay. I'm not sure if I would describe is as 'out of the tourist area' as pretty much everywhere in Venice is super touristy! It is however, reasonably quiet and really well located. It looks like its fairly far from the main tourist stuff but it only ever took us about 5 minutes to get to St Marks - everything is much closer together than you think and how it looks on a map!

The apartment is up a couple of flights of stairs so be wary if you aren't the fittest/have mobility issues. You then enter into the kitchen and then up another flight of stairs to the bedroom, living room, bathroom and balconies. The bedroom was spotless and really cosy. Huge amounts of wardrobe space, great a/c unit and lovely view out over the rooftops. The bathroom was ok - the shower could definitely do with a new head and a bit of a deep clean but overall pretty good.

The highlight of the flat is definitely the main terrace/balcony. It overlooks the square below and has chairs and a table to relax and have dinner looking at the sunset. Does not get much direct sunlight (north west facing) so not somewhere you can sit in the sun all day.

Beware of mosquitos! Got bitten a ton when out sitting on the terrace having dinner so had to buy lots of mosquito spray - wish I'd brought some from the UK where we have a much higher deet percentage, the Italian stuff is not the strongest.

I sent Orsola a couple of questions before we arrived but didn't hear back from her so was a little worried. However on the day, we were slightly early so messaged her through the Airbnb app and she replied straight away saying she would come and meet us. We got on the vaporetto from SL train station, hopped off at Rialto and it was only a 5 minute walk from there where she met us promptly.

I saw people stayed here as a group of 4 - it would definitely be cosy but you could probably do it as the living room is a separate room with a door, although it would be pretty tight in there with suitcases etc.

There's a Coop supermarket in the square where you can buy everything which is great for eating a few meals in and saving some money - Venice is so expensive! Kitchen is well stocked with the basics so you don't need to buy oil, salt, pepper, balsamic etc. My recommendations for food would be Grom for ice cream - 4 mins from the apartment and Paradiso Perduto for dinner.

Overall a great, well priced, comfortable and centrally located place to stay in Venice, I would highly recommend.