Venice city centre holiday apartment

What a wonderful apartment, SO peaceful and quiet - a very important quality in Venice, especially when you return after a days sightseeing, wining and dining !!
Meet and Greet was great, we arrived in the rain, luckily the only day in our 2 weeks holiday. The Altana was a great spot for watching the sun rise (5,40am on Sunday 30th August 2009!!!!) and we enjoyed many a glass of wine or Amaretto late at night, enjoying the wonderful air and views of the adjoining roofs and canals.
A lovely quiet master bedroom was a godsend AS was the air conditioning a great addition and very necessary in a Venetian summer.
A small but perfectly formed kitchen.
A shower room next to the kitchen with beautifully coloured marble tiles was ideal. I enjoyed many a tranquil bath on the 2nd floor overlooking the canal, enjoying some well deserved recharging of batteries for the next onslaught of our beloved Venice !!

Filippo is a charming host, very genial and an interesting guy. He let us watch the Regatta Storica from the boat deck of his nearby Palazzo, which was great fun and we loved it. We are now already looking at other properties in his portfolio (just for a change of location).

This apartment is in a great area, once we found the shortcut to the Academia we were there in 2 minutes. Only steps away from Campo San Barnaba where there are numerous cafes, bars, and many nice restaurants down the Calle Lunga San Barnaba. Also there is a small store where you can buy, milk,water, wine and basic groceries and pasta. Also Punta Sma Supermarket is only 5 minutes from the apartment this is a largish supermarket, with the most high speed check out operator I have ever seen in my life !

A few minutes walk to the Zattere, where you have some wonderful sunrise/sunset opportunities. As well as a smattering of bars, and some lovely restaurants, at night you have some stunning views. We know this area so well, our Friend Alessandro owns the Cantinone Storico just 5 minutes walk away on the canal by Campo San Vio, so it was great to be so close, but it was also very handy for walking to all areas including Canaregio, The station (we went to Padua for the day - very doable - it takes about 15/20 mins to walk to the station)
To sum up the apartment was spotlessly clean, comfortable and welcoming - a real feeling of "I'm home" feel on opening the door !
Go - you will love it !!

We stayed here early June 2009 for 8 days.

It turned out to be in an enchanting, secluded courtyard which we had stumbled across and photographed on a previous visit to Venice.

We were two adult couples and the accommodation worked well for us. Neither of the bathrooms are en suite. One (with a shower) is opposite one of the bedrooms and the other (with a bathroom) is upstairs from the other bedroom (on the way to the terrace). This gives enough of a separation to provide suitable privacy.

The flat has a lovely sitting / dining room and a small but perfectly adequate kitchen. Windows and a small balcony open on to the canal (Rio del Malpaga), or the courtyard (Corte de la Comare).

The Altana provides excellent views of Venice's rooftops, with a very interesting aspect of the rear of San Barnaba. We drank and snacked up there but never had a full meal as we either ate out, or used the elegant dining table near the kitchen. The apartment has most domestic facilities you will need but a welcome addition would be some sort of basic table covering for the Altana table.

Nearby there is one of our favourite Venetian eating places: Ai Artisiti in Fondamenta de la Toletta. It lies just over one of the three local bridges (Ponte del Squero) of this little island, and is not to be confused with the cafe of the same name in Campo San Barnaba. The food here is consistently good, without much emphasis on fish, and there is a range of excellent wine. Prices are not bad for Venice (which of course means not cheap either).

There is so much to enjoy within easy reach. The reception was friendly and very relaxed. Everything went according to plan, including the arrangement of a water taxi (extra payment: 90-95 euro) for our arrival and departure. Especially good as our arrival flight returned to London Gatwick and was therefore delayed by several hours.

Yes, a great place to stay - highly recommended. Plenty of room for four (six, if family).

We wanted a holiday where we could spend some time with our grown-up childrene and their partners, and found this lovely apartment by looking through this website and count ourselves very lucky. It is very spacious and in a good location for the supermarket and the vegetable boat near Campo San Barnaba and the fish market in Campo Sam Margarita, all of which we used. The roof terrace was a bonus and it was very bizarre to sit eating breakfast watching the tops of cruise liners sail by. Filippo was very helpful when we found that one of the fold-up beds was broken just before our daughter and her boyfriend were due to arrive. He came round very quickly with a replacement. The aircon came in very handy too last week as we recovered from walking around the city in high temperatures. It was our eighth visit to Venice (and the longest) and we look forward to repeating the experience in a couple of years' time, hopefully in the same apartment.