This was our second city in a longer European trip. The description of the apartment does not do it justice. It is amazing! If you're going to Venice do the upgrade and stay in this older home.

You walk into the apartment in a largely private open area into another ground floor that's private and finally into the apartment. I visited with my four children and they loved the "backyard" terrace which gave them some running room and an amazing place to eat and drink, with the best view of the Grand Canal.

I couldn't have asked for a better host than Anna. She was responsive and friendly. The location of the apartment is right off a main street and about a 10 min (or 15 with small kids) walk from the Venice train station \ bus drop-off. Within a 5 minute walk, you'll find 1 grocery store and about 20 typical restaurants. We felt the restaurants nearby were all cloned restaurants for tourists so we ventured out a bit further to get a better Venetian restaurant experience. A 15 minute walk will get you closer to where the locals eat, with better prices and much, much better food. There's a fishmonger and fruit market two minutes from you. St Marks is about a 20 minute walk (30 with kids). There's even a vaparetto (boat bus) 2 minutes from your apartment. The tax stop is literally in your private "driveway" (boat ramp) at the apartment.

The only negative was the washer/dryer, which was a community washer/dryer took quite some time to process our large family. We're backpacking through Europe and we had to wash quite a bit of clothes at that point. It could have taken us all day to process that load of clothes. That said, it was a tiny price to pay for all the positives (view, lots of space, kitchen, etc). Just make sure you have an outfit or two before arriving.

All in all, it's going to be hard to beat this Venice experience!