The beds were firm and comfortable, and that's all I cared about. Denise had explained that she had higher-end apartments available, but I liked that location. I spend as little time as possible in an apartment or hotel room when I'm in Venice. Also, it was only a minute's walk from one of Venice's liveliest campi, Santa Maria Formosa. And the apartment was far superior to one I'd rented several years ago, which, among other horrors, had a painting on the wall that featured Chinese men carrying a monkey tied to a bamboo pole through a forest, while other Chinese men were beating the monkey to death. My landlady assured me it was an old and very valuable painting, but as soon as she left, I draped a blanket over it."Venetian terminology can also present cultural differences, according to Mr. Troi. "Our agency offers a wonderful apartment that sleeps four in the Castello district, private garden, fully restored with modern furniture in a 16th Century palazzo for about 165 dollars a night," he said. "It was one of the homes of the Querini family, part of the Venetian nobility. In our apartment description, we had literally translated the word 'palazzo' to 'palace.' Well, we had a family from San Francisco arrive, demanding to know where their palace was. They were thinking Buckingham Palace in England."

In ancient times, Venice was a Republic governed by a wealthy noble class that tried to out-do each other with the grandeur of their homes. The families lived, worked and entertained in their palaces. A typical palazzo was used as a warehouse, office and residence. Located on a canal, with an entrance hall that stretched from one end of the building to the other, the ground floor could be accessed by either land or water and was also used as a storehouse for goods such as wine, spices and fabric. An outside balcony highlighted the distinctive windows of the piano nobile, or noble floor, where entertaining took place. Nowadays, the palazzi have been divided up into hotels, offices, museums, and smaller apartments, although it's still possible to score the entire floor of a piano nobile - for a price.