Massimo’s apartment is well located in the San Stae neighbourhood. It’s just several doors away from the San Stae church and ferry terminal on the grand canal. The ferryline goes directly to the airport which is a plus. It's also walkable distance to the main train station, albeit it's a long walk with luggage. The quiet area is a mixed of residential with schools and grocery stores in the area, and commercial with small hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops within walking distance. Main square has open air tago on Tuesday nights.
Massimo’s apartment is newly and professionally restored with carefully attention to detail. It’s situated on the ground floor and first of a historical apartment building. The apartment’s entrance is on the ground floor, where one finds a utility space with washer and dryer, detergents etc, plus a small shower room located at the back. We only used this area for storing our shoes, and luggage.
The opened planned kitchen living area, two bedrooms and shower room are located upstairs on the first floor, so one does not feel as if they are being observed by pedestrians. There are blind/curtains on all windows, plus the option the close the outside shutters for extra privacy and darkness at night.
The entire space is tastefully decorated with Italian flair. As one person commented it’s not quite as large as in the photos. This is true. It appears that the photos were taken with a wide-angle lens, which makes things appear larger. For the most part the apartment feels spacious, nonetheless.
The kitchen is user friendly with ample storage space, but unfortunately an insufficient number of cups and dishes. We had to wash the dishes every day in order to have something for the next meal. An easy more ecological fix would be to obtain more dishes and use the dish washer when full. Tabs are provided for the dishwasher.
The kitchen had a large cosy built in wooden table that is accessible on both sides. There are electric sockets for charging phone etc on both sides of the table.
The kitchen is appointed with a much-appreciated Nespresso machine as well as a stove top Bialetti coffee maker. Massimo provided a few coffee capsules for the Nespresso machine. Nevertheless, we brought our own Nespresso capsules with us. I am guessing that it would not necessarily be easy to purchase them in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, a warm milk frother was not provided for those who like a cappuccino in the morning.
There are lots of windows along the open plan kitchen / living room as well as extra interior windows to bringing extra light to otherwise dark rooms like the small bedroom.
New air conditioning units have been placed on the walls in both bedrooms and living room. I don’t know about the ground floor entrance. The units are modern and quiet, so they can be used overnight if necessary. They can be used for both cooling and heating.
Main bedroom is large, well-appointed with ample storage space, i.e. wardrobe, chest of drawer, and bedside tables. Comfortable double bed. Amble electric sockets to charge phone etc. Two small windows overlooking an alley have exterior wooden shutters that close, making the room nice and dark at night. The double-glazed windows throughout the apartment are brand new and fairly soundproof. The neighborhood was quite in October, and we did not get disturbed during the night. We only heard the children going to school in the morning.
The biggest drawback of the apartment is that the second bedroom is very small. It is furnished with wardrobe, shelving, and desk like countertop (or something) overlooking the staircase. Storage is amble but unfortunately it is at the expense of a larger or second bed. To be fair the room is very difficult to furnace due to its size and placement of the doors and windows. It works a children’s bedroom with a small bed or home office / hobby room. When we were there it had a single sofa bed opened against the wardrobe (so the wardrobe could not be utilised) and another single cot just 30 cm or so away along the opposite wall. It was very overcrowded for two people. Being close family, they surprisingly managed to sleep well, nonetheless. I don’t see it working otherwise. The room is more suitable for a single person or two small children in a larger bed.
I believe the sofa in the living room pulls out to a double bed. We didn’t actually use the sofa much, but sat around the kitchen table instead.
The Wi-Fi worked without problems.
I would recommend this apartment for a couple in the master bedroom and a single adult in the smaller room, or at most two children in the smaller room. It would be also be suitable as a furnished business apartment for one working a few weeks or even months in Venice.