I stayed in the "monolocale" (one bedroom studio apartment, sort of - this is not the apartment shown in the pics on Venere, but it's similar) rented by La Piazzetta B & B for 3 weeks when I was in Lecce for research purposes. Its location is excellent - it's on a narrow back street called Vico San Giusto, 2 minutes walk from Porta Napoli, and very convenient for Piazza Sant'Oronzo and Santa Croce. Although it's on a back street I didn't feel like there were any safety issues (as a woman staying on my own) - it was just a quiet residential street typical of the historic centre of Lecce. There's a bar, a tobacconist, a small "salumeria" (selling basic groceries) and an internet cafe within a couple of minutes' walk, and it's also not far from plenty of restaurants shops and bars near Piazza Sant'Oronzo and the newer part of town by Piazza Mazzini is also perfectly walkable. It's the opposite end of town to the station (though it's within walking distance if you don't have luggage), but the owners met me at the station when I arrived (late in the evening) and gave me a lift to the station the day I left (early in the morning!).

The apartment was perfectly pleasant, although there are a few things that weren't perfect (although in many ways it was just typical of most apartments in Lecce - I've seen quite a few!). For example, if the water heater was turned on, I couldn't use the hairdryer or it would blow the electrics, but that's fairly standard for (southern?) Italy. The gas hob was a bit... eccentric, shall we say? And it had no ignition button, so matches or lighters were the order of the day. The shower didn't stay on it's wall attachment so I had to do hand held showering. But for me none of that was really a problem, I'm used to student accommodation, so I didn't bother complaining. It was also quite dusty - but again, that's just how Lecce is, it's a dusty city! I wiped the bedside table down one night before going to bed and it was dusty when I woke up! There was enough storage space, adequate kitchen equipment, a very new looking fridge, a TV, etc. The bed was perfectly comfortable for me, although I would have thought if you had back problems or anything the mattress might have been a bit thin. Similarly, I had no problems with the size of the bathroom (very small), but if you were particularly tall it might be more of a problem. The other good thing was that it stayed very cool inside the apartment even when it was really quite hot outside. There was an air con unit, but I never needed to use it - because of its location on a very narrow street the sunlight didn't really get in except early in the morning (on the down side this did make for a slight lack of natural light, but you can't have it all!)

The owners were very nice and very helpful - as I mentioned they picked me up and dropped me off at the station, and they told me tto ring any time if there was anything I needed (I had to ring a couple of times - once to ask for a teatowel, as there wasn't one, and once to ask for help working the hob! - and Attilio came round in about 10 minutes. I never actually saw the B & B "HQ", if indeed there is one - I always just rang. Not a problem for me, and I'm fairly sure one of them spoke English reasonably well (I'm not positive as I spoke to them in Italian), so it shouldn't be a problem for anyone. They came round every 4 days to clean, change the bed linen and give me fresh towels.

It's not by any means luxurious or perfect, and if you're used to staying in flashy hotel accommodation, this is unlikely to be to your taste, particularly if you're not used to the joys (and otherwise!) of southern Italian life. But overall it was perfect for what I needed and I would definitely go back.