Guido is such a wonderful host. He is very kind and communicative. I would definitely stay at his properties in the future. The home offers great value, we got a great rate for a superb location. Plus the place is quiet and dark at night. The place serves its purpose of having a place to sleep. I really like having two toilets for our family of 5.
A few tips for future guests:
1. You will need to go up three full flights of stairs in addition to two semi flights. No issue for us but would be for individuals with mobility issues.
2. When you turn on the shower, let it run for a few minutes before getting in. The shower water temperature will turn cold on you and then you would turn it all the way to hot. Then the temperature gets hot and you have to turn it back. It happened every night for all family members. We knew old buildings have plumbing issues so did not bring it up during our stay.
3. If you run the shower you can't take a bath at the same time in the other restroom as the water pressure gets very low. These are historic buildings so I understand the plumbing is not up to date.
4. Internet service is very weak in the bedrooms. You can barely get signal. I understand this is an old building with metal walls. Perhaps an internet extender will help. On our last night the internet kept dropping even in the family room and we had to reboot often. My husband couldn't work without the reliable internet.
5. Bring cash as you have to pay for Venice tourist tax. We were prepared for it and had Euros on hand.
6. The circuit breaker can trip so you won't get hot water. In the kitchen, open the corner cabinet and push the black reset button.
7. Italy is facing an energy crisis so the place doesn't heat past 20c/68f. The heat only runs for a few hours and it takes a very long time to heat. Be prepared to bring warm clothes and socks if the cold is bothersome. Guido said we can turn on the heating component in the ac unit but we did not try it. FYI we went at the end of November.
8. Guido was very gracious and helped us book the water taxi for $150 since our flight departs at 6 am. We left at 2:50 am and got to the airport at 3:20. We did not know that the airport closes 12-4 am every night. The elevators and escalators were still closed so we had to wait in the cold for for a good half hour. If you take the water taxi, don't leave as early as we did or else you will wait for the doors to open at 4 am. We waited with a man who made us feel very unsafe.
9. Planet and Global Blue don't open until 7 am and Customs opens at 5 am so we had to wait to get our vat refund review. In Italy there is no longer a Vat refund stamp. We got in line early at 4:45 because the lines get very long and the wait can cause you to miss your flight. We made it to our flight right at boarding time at 5:30 am. Please note, customs randomly asked us to show them our purchase on one item. We were prepared to do so.
10. The pillows are flat so we folded them to get more elevation. The towels are small and barely fit around my body. The kids got three sets of towels that felt more like fabric place mats. These were quick drying towels.
11. When departing from the train station into Venice, we got on E1 line to stop at San Angelo. The vaporetto staff said lines B1 and B2 don't stop there.
These are only tips and not anything negative. Again, Guido is wonderful host and Venice is so memorable. Thanks again Guido!