Venice - Apartment Carrozze is an airy and light holiday apartment, sleeping up to four, close to Venice's Grand Canal.
In a typical Venetian house, which has been beautifully restored, the apartment is in the delightful San Samuele area of the city, itself in the central 'sestiere' (or area) of San Marco.
The third-floor flat has a living/dining room with TV. Off this there is a kitchen corner with oven and fridge-freezer. There is one double bedroom and a single bedroom with a second, fold-down bed. The bathroom has a shower and there is a washing machine. Simply, yet nicely furnished, the flat is centrally heated. It will cost from €933 to €999 per week.
The apartment is in a superb position for visitors to the city. There's so much to see in Venice - this is one of the art and architectural treasure houses of Europe, spread across 118 islands - that you're never going to see everything. But this flat, very close to the magnificent Palazzo Grassi and the Grand Canal, puts you right in the centre of historic Venice.
Travelling by water is the best way to see Venice and you can hop on a vaporetto at San Samuele Quay. Looking back from at San Samuele, you'll see the Palazzo Grassi; this extraordinary marble edifice was built as a home for the Grassi family in the eighteenth century. Restored by the Fiat car company in 1984, it's now a museum.
The sestiere of San Marco is the heart of Venice. Piazza San Marco was described as 'the drawing room of Europe' by Napoleon. He realized it was the hub of Venetian life, lived as it is on the street. Today, this elegant piazza is lined with old cafés. Sit outside with a coffee and marvel at a city architecture where Byzantine, Gothic, Roman Classical and late Renaissance jostle for space. One thousand years of Venetian history is on show here.
Piazza San Marco links to the Rialto bridge by the Mercerie, one of the world's narrowest, most elegant and most expensive shopping streets. Be sure to see St Mark's Basilica, the Doge's Palace, and the Torre dell'Orologio clocktower, as you travel through the area.
With the exception of San Marco, the squares of Venice are dubbed 'campo' rather than 'piazza', and the city is full of fascinating examples. Walk to Campo San Luca with its bars and cake shops. See Campo Sant'Angelo with its dramatic view of Santo Stefano's leaning tower. And there is the grand Campo Santo Stefano, second only to Piazza San Marco in size in this sestiere.
[ local map | map of regionAnd this is only one of six sestieri in the city. Walk or hop on a boat and explore one of the world's most extraordinary and beautiful cities. At the end of the day, you can return to a traditional Venetian apartment, amongst the restaurants and bars of that city's heart.
