Paolo was a very gracious host. Even though he has 69 stairs to climb to the apartment he graciously carried our heavy suitcases up and down for us. Additionally, he helped us carry our suitcases up over the bridge steps so we could take the vaporetto directly to the airport. The apartment is lovely and very updated. The kitchen was well equipped and the refrigerator worked very well, providing us ice for the hot days, and keeping our food nicely cool. The bed was comfortable and the shutters closed tightly and made the bedroom nice and dark for sleeping. The view out the window at the tourists below was nice. In fact, one morning Lenny was opening a shutter up and a "tourist" below was taking pictures of him -- probably to take home and tell his friends that this was a native Venetian man. So, as Paolo says in his summary -- our visit to his apartment was a chance to experience Venice as a resident.