We stayed at Madalenna's place from 26-29 Aug 2012. Here's our experience:
1. Pre-departure: Madalenna was so, so helpful with all our enquiries; since we had two young kids with us we asked a lot of questions. She was always prompt in her reply. She also gave us a list of things to do and places to go which was great as it was a list of things that locals would use.
2. Arrival: we arrived at Fondamente Nove and was greeted by the caretaker who helped us find the place. If you depended on Google Maps to locate her place, you'd never find it. Best that you arrange for a meet-greet-show session.
3. Stay: (i) The Plus points: you're not renting a room, you're renting a 4-storey apartment. Best to go as a group to stay here, as I cannot imagine how it would be like if strangers stayed under one roof, there are no doors to the rooms. Actually there is a room with a door - but that's the kids room, with 2 bunk beds (high up). The master bedroom is in the attic space, while the second bedroom was really the futton in the living troom. The neighbourhood is predominantly local, so you would really feel like you were one of the Venetians while staying here. (ii) The Negatives: ONE - The shower is extremely impratical to use. To begin with, it's inside the bath, so you'd have to be standing inside the bath to be using it. It comes with a set of instructions - basically Madalenna would tell you not to wet the "Specially Treated Timber" but it's rather impossible to do as merely having a shower would mean getting water onto the timber. So i spent more time drying the walls and floors than myself everytime i had a shower. Which was annoying. TWO - The apartment was hot! We were there when it was a hot and sunny Venetian week, and getting into the apartment was no respite. The air was still, even with the windows opened. It is listed as having aircon, but the air conditioning unit was above the stairway landing, and didn't do a good job cooling the living and sleeping space. We had a lot of problems with the young children as they could not fall into their afternoon and mid-morning naps because it was just too hot and stuffy. THREE - the apartment is not child friendly, despite the fact that there's a children's room with toys. If you have a child who is just learning to walk, or is crawling, this palce is not for you. Even when we took our youngest (1-year old) to the kitchen, we couldn't leave him alone as there were not cupboards in the kitchen and he kept going for the bleach under the sink. Lastly, we felt that the host could have done a better job clearing up counter space for us to use (like the promo images)