Lidia personifies every wonderful thing I know about Italian people. She was kind, sweet, gracious, and very accommodating. She met us warmly at the Vaporetto stop (with the iconic, lovely bacetto-- our teen daughter was surprised), to lead us to the apartment, and gave in great detail how things worked. Let me just say that there is no better location than this as a base... you are literally steps away from St. Mark's Square (can see the bell tower from your windows), however the private courtyard gives you some quiet. It is quite a hike up the 5 flights, good exercise for working off pasta, gelato and cannoli. The apartment is spacious and nicely renovated and decorated, clean and orderly. The beds were comfortable. The kitchen was handy (we made pasta one night and used the Moka for coffee). The shower isn't for giants, so be prepared to stoop. The temperatures were cool so we left windows open and did not try the A/c... which in turn left us with a few mosquito bites! (Lidia apologized profusely that the bathroom suffered from the typical Venice problem of smelly plumbing in older buildings, so the door needed to be kept shut (the only small issue, which is easy to overlook)). Being in the middle of such a touristy area, it is harder to find stores for reasonably priced grocery items or restaurants. Lidia left us a long list of recommended restaurants in the Cannaregio area... which unfortunately is quite a distance from St. Marks, so we weren't able to find these or try them ("addresses" in Venice are very difficult). Suggest you head away from St. Mark's for better prices and quality of restaurants and food items (Rialto market, across the bridge--get there before 1:00 though). Always look down "allies" for smaller cafes, vs. the touristy ones on squares or main streets.

We ran into Lidia the last day walking though Venice, and she was sweet and warm in her welcome.

We loved our stay there, and highly recommend it. Just know you've got 5 flights.

(Note on getting around-- Venice charges A LOT for their Vaporhetti transport services--7 Euros a ride! They offer one- and multi- day passes, but still expensive. We chose to walk most of our days, then timed a one-day pass at 20 Euros so that we could go out to the islands, and ride the Canal for the day to get our money's worth... and then take it to the train station our last day. They are good for 24 hours after validation. For students under 25, there's a special deal "Rolling Venice), so ask).