This review is for our stay at this apartment for 4 nights in May 2013. We were a party of 4, my husband and I, along with my parents.

Francesca was out of town during her stay, so her mother, Signora Pasti was our hostess. I was initially a little worried as Francesca had mentioned that her mom did not speak English, and we do not speak Italian. After having been their guest, I can say that I worried for nothing. Signora Pasti was as warm and welcoming as could be, and the international language of gestures worked very well. I do speak French, and many words between French and Italian have similar roots, so that helped. In addition, they had very clear instructions printed in English for things, so that helped too.

The first thing we noticed was how INCREDIBLY clean the apartment was. Seriously, we have stayed in many apartments over our travels, and while some are cleaner than others, this apartment was SPOTLESS. It was the cleanest apartment we have ever stayed in.

We were surprised to find that there was a welcome package of food (pasta, tomato sauce, coffee, tea, juice, water, sugar, salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and cookies) left for us by our hostess. It was such a kind, unexpected gesture, and we appreciated it.

The hostess provides several guide books on Venice in the apartment and also a custom made binder full of information on the city along with recommendations for restaurants and shops.

The rooms are just as pictured on the air bnb website. But they look even better in real life!

For North Americans, you will most likely find, as we did, that the beds are very, very firm. However, I would feel wrong complaining about it. It is not a defect of the apartment, as firm beds are the norm in Italy. (It would like Italians complaining when coming to North America that our beds are too soft!). It is what it is. However, those with back issues may want to take note of it.

We arrived in Venice by train, and opted to walk to the apartment with our luggage. If we were doing it again we would take a water bus, as what should have been a 7-10 minute walk took us about 25 minutes. Unfortunately the maps were not very clear. If we did not have a gps on our ipad, we would have had to call the hostess as we got turned around several times.

In closing, I want to pass on that this is a lovely apartment, furnished with fabulous, very high quality (and in some cases antique) furniture. It is a great base to see the city of Venice at a competitive price. For a party of 4, it was perfect as there were 2 complete bathrooms (one with shower, one with bathtub).

Thank you to Francesca and her mother for being such fabulous hostesses. We enjoyed our time in your apartment.