Dodi arranged for a young girl Charlotte to receive us at the Santa Lucia train station. She was there on time and helped us reach the house through the winding, small roads. It's a 15-20minute walk and involves crossing 3 bridges so one needs to keep this in mind if coming with heavy luggages. (Note that the airbnb profile map shows it much close to the railway station than in reality.) We were glad that Charlotte helped carry one of our bags-on-wheels and it was a huge relief. But after that, we were on our own in terms of orienting ourselves. We got help from passers-by about the nearest grocery store and water bus stop. Charlotte had to leave in a hurry to attend other guests and she mentioned that she knew only little English. Anyway, we were happy to find out that the St. Alvise vaporetto stop was just a few steps away, and Conad supermarket is less than 10 minute walk. For the rest, Google Maps came to our rescue helping us even with bus routes and timings.
The apartment itself is quite nice and thankfully on the ground floor. It has 1 big bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen is stocked with essentials and we were happy to cook meals here. It is in a calm neighborhood, very close to St. Alvise from from where major lines such as 4.1/2 and 5.1/2 go. The area near the vaporetto stop is lovely in the evenings with families and their children playing in the open. But the rides to popular places like St. Marks can take about 40 minutes or so, and about same time if one walks. So yes, its far from the tourist spots, but is in a quiet area.
We had a minor issue that the pipe to the shower in the bathroom had a hole and water leaked through it in random directions. We also observed that a few drawer handles in bedroom were broken. We were there just for 2 nights and informed Dodi about it while leaving. Hopefully, this is fixed.
By the way, keep asking about Vapretto strikes! There was a strike on the day we were supposed to leave and we were kindly told about it at a restaurant a day in advance. Had we not known, we would have surely missed our train to Milan and further connections! We used the bus ride to Ferrovia (Vaporetto stop for Santa Lucia) the previous night to keep heavy bags in the baggage deposit at the Train station.
Overall, we had a nice stay in Dodi's apartment.