Alain definitely is a friendly gentleman and we enjoyed staying at Gradenigo Marin. It was exciting to stay in such a great location and in a palace (which my daughters thought was super exciting!). Lots of old world charm. As seen in the pictures, the bathrooms are more out dated but all was well kept. We did get a lot of mosquito bites because we left the windows open b/c it was stuffy if we didn't without a/c in the summer.