Thursday, February 12, 2015

Where to stay in Venice and live like a Venetian

Dear readers,

2014 was a wonderful year and it looks like 2015 will be an even more adventurous and exciting one. Today’s BLOG is dedicated to my own beautiful Venice. 

Happy in my own Venice


If you are planning to visit Venice you are of course looking for a nice place to stay. Most people know the names of some of the fancy hotels as they are the places were the movie stars stay, but there are also some very nice smaller hotels. There is also a large selection of very nice and often very affordable apartments that are for rent.  To stay in these little apartaments will for sure give you a different feel of Venice. You’ll be feeling like a real Venetian and living like one.

Filming interviews for my television special From Venice With Love
In October 2014 I was in m own Venice where I filmed a part of my television special “From Venice With Love”. We had such an awesome time and we were lucky with the weather. No one single day of rain and sunshine everyday!

Today I want to share with you where my crew and I stayed in Venice while filming.

The living room of ca5393
My director and his assistant, the Dutch crew, stayed at the apartment of my friend Chantal Fresco; the Ca’ 5393, situated in the historical center of Venice. She has three apartments that she rents out. They are all in the same building, between Fondamente Nove and Rialto. My director and his assistant stayed in the Orange apartment, which can accommodate up to 4 people. It has an independent entrance at the ground floor, which came handy as they had a lot of equipment that they had to bring in an out every day. 
The kitchen on ca5393
It is composed by a very well equipped kitchen, has two bedrooms and one bathroom with a large shower. Chantal has also an apartment for 6 people and 7 people. The apartments have all Wi-Fi and are close to everything you need like coffee bars, restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, and shops. For more information visit http://www.ca5393.com/english.html Chantal is a very nice young lady and speaks also great English. She will be thrilled to have more of my friends staying in her apartments.

A beautiful place behind the Rialto Bridge
My photographer stayed at the apartment of the mother of a dear friend of mine, in a building that is over 500 years old, behind the Rialto Bridge. For this apartment require normally a longer stay, but they were so nice to help me and accommodate my photographer Mike.

With the wonderful Marco e Cristina
My parents and I stayed at the apartment of my friend Cristina Briselli. My parents have a house just outside Venice where I also still have my own apartment. But for the filming it was more practical to stay in the old center of Venice. Cristina’s apartment is walking distance from the train station, in the Cannaregio area. It’s a beautiful new renovated apartment in a building that was originally a factory. It can accommodated 6 people, has 2 bedrooms and two bathrooms. It has a beautiful kitchen with all new appliances. The apartment has also Wi-Fi and is close to the fruit, vegetable and fish
The beautiful bedroom of Cristina's apartment
market and every thing you need like coffee bars, restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, shops. Cristina and her husband Marco have been an enormous help with the filming that we did in Venice. Without their great support we would have never been able to do what we have accomplished for my television special. I’m so grateful to them. We actually made Marco the official" location coordinator " as he really was bringing us around Venice with his boat, helped with many little details of the filming in Venice. Sometimes you need to be lucky in life, and
The private garden of Cristina's Apartment 
I feel so blessed to have met two friends like Marco and Cristina.
For more information about Cristina’s apartment http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p1113600. They speak English and are incredible nice people!! You will LOVE this place!!! I surely did.

In my next blog I will tell you about some good places to eat while in Venice.

Un affettuso saluto,


Giada

Go to www.giadavalenti.com for a free song