We spent the morning of our arrival day sitting outside for 3 hours in a driving rainstorm in Rome to see the Pope, jumped on the high speed train to Venice arriving at 17:00 to hard rain, high seas and gale winds. Thank God we had a host like Giovanni! He had texted us the directions so we braved the elements got on the waterbus for a wet, wild ride to our stop where Giovanni met us and led us to our Venice home. Everyone including Giovanni was soaked to the bone but we were home and had shelter. Giovanni showed us the bedrooms, baths, living area, kitchen and instructed on appliance use. He had a informational/instructional guidebook prepared with all the info for the home as well as maps showing our location, the neighborhood markets and restaurants and info for Venice sights. This was very helpful. Carol and I were now in a big hurry to make it to the Opera as curtain was at 19:00. We made plans with Giovanni to store our bags on our departure day, he gave us directions and we were off to the theatre. The kids utilized Giovanni's guidebook with great success to secure dinner and breakfast groceries. We hustled through the maze that is Venice in pouring rain and through flooding over our ankles to make curtain with a minute to spare. I tell you this long story to emphasize that without Giovanni's outstanding hospitality we would not have made it to La Traviatta that night. We found a place to eat after the show and then made our way back to our Venice home which is located in a peaceful residential neighborhood of Venice. we crawled into a wonderful bed in a quiet room and slept a blissful, exhausted sleep. The boys made breakfast for all and we utilized the washing machine in our home before going out in the continuing storm to tour. We stayed out late and then had dinner at home and played card games just like at home. Giovanni met us the next day so we could leave our bags while we went sightseeing. As we ate lunch just before returning to get our bags the rain stopped and the sun came out! Because of the weather we had not been able to take a gondola cruise and when we met Giovanni I asked about a watertaxi instead of the waterbus back to the train. Giovanni called the watertaxi for us and escorted us to the exact spot for pickup. We paid the watertaxi extra to take us to the station via the Grand Canal. It was fantastic as the city was just shimmering in the late afternoon sun! Giovanni was a fabulous host, the home has been recently remodeled so it was modern, spotlessly clean, well equipped and we loved the location...just out of the touristy areas but close to sights and populated by locals.