Our stay in Venice was the last leg of a 21-days trip to Italy, which also included Florence and Rome, all booked via HomeAway. The Venice apartment was by far the most expensive, and a separate “cleaning fee” was added. Its location is fine, a few blocks off the beaten path of tourists. That makes the apartment mostly quiet, although by 5 a.m. or a bit later some motor boats start to circulate in the canal next to it. Located on the first level, it is easily accessible. Our favourite restaurant on Fondamento Nóvo was Da Alvisa (Cannaregio, 5045/a), with nice views and fantastic pasta and pizza dishes.
The main problem with this apartment is that, in spite of good-looking pictures, the furniture is quite old. Only the bathroom is updated. The kitchen is mostly functional but dated, and the espresso coffee maker did not work. The teapot had so much accumulated stuff at its bottom that it looked disgusting. The mattresses are very tough and need updating. The bedroom had a penetrated cigarette smell. The carpet in the living room had a smell of stale humidity and it was old. The Wi-Fi had an extremely weak and slow connection, so it was barely operable. By comparison, the Florence apartment was fully renovated a year and a half before and it is cleaned by the owner, who also owns the next-door apartment in the same building. The furniture was simple, all from Ikea, but fully functional and comfortable. Both at Florence and in Rome, the apartments had a good supply of coffee for our entire stay and other essentials like oil, dishwashing soap, washing-machine soap, bubble bath soap, and even toothpaste in Rome. They did feel like a “home away from home.” In Venice, there was just a trace of oil, sufficient to make an egg or two. All the pots and pans were very old. All-in-all, the Venice apartment seemed considerably overpriced, and this probably has much to do with the fact that it is (mis-)managed by a real estate company, headquartered in Rome. The paper work required for this booking was enormous compared to the other two. The management should provide a map with the most important essentials, like a supermarket, restaurants, etc., as we were provided both in Florence and Rome. With current management practices, and without updating, I cannot recommend this property.