Following our recent January visit, we have appointed Giorgia Chiozzi as local property manager and concierge.

Giorgia is a slightly different choice to some of the other appointments we have made for your apartments. Being Venetian born and raised gives her a head start with your local planning, but the key difference is that she is also a licensed Venetian guide, and if that wasn’t enough she also holds a Master Sommelier Diploma in wine.

As a local with such a background she is able to satisfy your curiosity with itineraries that can be tailored around your personal interests, introducing you to some of her favourite secret places along the way and of course always able to refresh you at the right place with the perfect glass of wine to compliment the moment!

Please contact Denise: dmcglinchey@rocksureproperty.com, in the Rocksure office, to find out more.

The Rocksure team sought to find the right balance of location – close enough to Venice’s most famous sights that you can access them easily on foot, or by vaporetto on the Grand Canal, whilst at the same time occupying a more residential quarter.

Campo Santa Margherita is a hidden slice of Venetian heaven, a comforting refuge away from the crowds with small shops, bars and restaurants, where you’ll actually hear Italian spoken. Venetians walk the dog, meet to chat in the street and catch up on the events of the day. Around the campo there are fruitiers, a superb fishmonger and a delicious bakery. A few doors down you can sample the best of the Veneto by the glass at the tiny Bistro do Draghi.

You’ll soon find your favourites amongst the local osteria, restaurants, cafes and pizzeria. Osteria Bifora (+39 041 523 6119) is a classic, offering excellent local fare. A typed up sheet draws your attention to seasonal daily specials. There are two pizzerias, one called Pizza al Volo (“pizza on the fly”) where you can grab a delicious slice for €2 – perfect if you have youngsters with you. As a "local" you’ll find that by Venetian standards food is delicious at prices that are good value.

The interiors of the apartment have been worked out carefully to maximise the circa 178 square metres of space. Originally two apartments, these will be knocked through into one. In total the apartment will be able to sleep six in two bedrooms and a media room cum study with a very comfortable pull out sofa-bed.

• LIVING ROOM: Taking the decision to make the potential third bedroom into the Media Room/ Study allowed us to keep the TV out of the main living room, which has fabulous floor to ceiling windows that open up onto a small balcony, which overlooks the Campo Santa Margherita from one side. It’s a lovely space, very conducive to relaxing, enjoying conversations and reading books and we felt TV would take away that essence.

There will, however, be two very good sized flat screen TVs in the apartment, one in the aforementioned Media Room and one in the Kitchen. Both are designed to be smart TVs which will connect to an IPTV box which will offer a good range of English speaking channels.

• KITCHEN: The kitchen itself will have a lovely table, capable of seating up to eight guests, so that even if you have friends staying outside the apartment in Venice, you will have ample seating to all take dinner together should you wish to. You will also have ample sized kitchen facilities so that you will be able to cook for yourselves should you wish to. The oven will combine as a microwave, there will be ample fridge and freezer space, an ice maker and plenty of storage for all other kitchen amenities.

Below is a summary of the sleeping arrangements:

o MASTER BEDROOM: Sleeps two - With en-suite bathroom and Super king bed, large wardrobe, windows open onto the campo
o BEDROOM 2: Sleeps 2 - With two large single beds that can be made up into a Super king, en suite bathroom, wardrobe, windows opening up onto elegant side street
o BEDROOM 3/ MEDIA ROOM CUM STUDY: With desk and laptop, large flat screen TV and IPTV English channels

The apartment interiors are currently being put together. 90% of all works and designs will be complete by April, however, there is the intention to make one major change to the configuration of the space that will not be possible until January 2018, a month which we have set aside for these works. This will be a change of bathroom configuration: Currently, there are three bathrooms in the apartment, each has a shower.

The master bedroom has the largest of the bathrooms, the other two are considerably smaller. The intention is to knock the two smaller bathrooms into one (as they sit next to each other). This will mean that we will be able to offer a shower in one bathroom and a bath tub and shower in the other one. We will then use another space in the apartment to create a small guest bathroom, taking the tally back up to three again.

Please, therefore, be aware that between now and next January, two of the bathrooms will be considerably smaller than as eventually planned.

We have already had strong interest from current shareholders in gaining greater annual use of the portfolio as it grows and provides more opportunity for staying in more destinations across the fund’s owned properties as well as its reciprocals. Remember that a combination of Rocksure Pounds and cash also gets you access to a range of villas, with more reciprocal villa and apartment choices/ destinations planned for the future.

The price of a Full Unit remains at €125,000 (c£108,000 or US$135,000) and existing Shareholders can now subscribe for an additional Quarter or Half Unit on a pro rata basis. A half unit equates to an additional 7-8 days and a quarter unit 3-4 days (an extra long-weekend) per year.

Please let us know if you would like to subscribe for further Full, Half or Quarter units of those still remaining.