Giulio is a fantastic host and was available to answer all our questions. His apartment was an easy 20 minute walk from the train station and we used Google maps to find it. It's in a quiet local part of Venice, which was great! A nice way to see where/how the locals live. We never felt the need to take a water taxi. We wandered back alleys to St.Mark's Basilica, which was probably a 45 minute walk. There are plenty of places to eat and shop within a 10 minute walk. There is a small grocery store within 5 minutes that had everything needed to make meals. We left from his apartment to the airport and it was a 3 minute walk to the spot to get our taxi (not a water taxi, but a car). Giulio was helpful in sending me links to taxi companies and letting me know where to tell them to meet us. With an early flight, I felt that a car was much less stressful to get to the airport than trying to figure out a water taxi to the airport.
As far as his apartment, it was the perfect size for our family of 4 (2 adults 2 teenagers). I knew it had a couch that converted to bed and was thinking that it would not be comfortable, but I was wrong...the pull-out couch was super comfortable and much larger than I expected. It was very quiet in the apartment, so sleeping was not an issue. The air conditioning and wifi both worked great. I was also able to wash a load of laundry and hang it out to dry.
I would highly recommend his apartment and would not hesitate to stay here again!