The Venice Venice Hotel
Sleep with the greats
Beholding the Rialto Bridge
Giants of the art world know, to grab attention and inspire you have to radicalise the form. And, this is what the Venice Venice Hotel – a hideaway hung with Fluxus and Arte Povera works, plus pieces by global greats (Bruce Nauman, Arnulf Rainer, Hanne Darboven) – is doing with style. It’s set in the Grand Canal’s oldest palazzo (the 13th-century Ca' da Mosto) – and overlooks the Rialto Bridge – but the owners, founders of brand Golden Goose, have brought in shiny new concepts and captivating 20th-century artworks it’s a privilege to slumber by, making something wholly modern. Take ciccheti and cocktails in the market-style dining sotoportego gallery (a covered passageway), buy fine crafts in the boutique, book the private roof terrace for city-wide views, and ponder the big ideas. When it comes to shaking up hotels, our gaze is firmly on this very nice, very nice stay.
Facilities
Rooms
26, including two suites.
Checkout
12 noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
More Details
Rates include a generous à la carte breakfast and minibar items.
Also
The hotel’s common areas are accessible and four rooms are suitable for guests requiring assistance with mobility.
Fitness Center
Free Internet Access
Laundry
Pet Friendly
On-Site Restaurant
Room Service
Spa
At the Hotel
Spa treatment room, gym, boutique, charged laundry service, free WiFi. In rooms: Bang & Olufsen TV, Bialetti coffee machine and kettle with teas, free minibar, bath products by the Erose.
Our Favourite Rooms
The Venice Venice could probably stand in for a foundation course in 20th-century art; staying here you’ll find yourself just casually snoozing by important works from the Fluxus community, Arte Povera and Poesia Visiva movements, and big-deal pieces from the owners’ collection, plus art books and journals abound throughout, so you’re bound to learn something, even by osmosis. Room 22 (AKA ‘Immense Light’) is dedicated to Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer’s Cycle of Hands, Room 27 has Bruce Nauman’s work on its walls, German conceptual artist Hanne Darboven is celebrated in Room 12 (Visual Codes), and Room 23 (A Gallerist’s Perspective) brings together Italy’s Arte Povera masterminds. But, art isn’t the only thing that’ll divert your attention – some rooms have iconic views of the Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge.
Spa
There’s a small spa dubbed Felix Anima with one treatment room, where you can enjoy a custom massage with the Erose products, followed by a cup of herbal tea.
Packing Tips
Leave room for phenomenally crafted pieces (shoes, blankets, bags, clothes, a very cool umbrella) from the hotel’s M’Art boutique. After all, Smithsters get a discount. And don’t load up on art books, the hotel has plenty for those who like to look and learn.
Also
The Venice Venice has a very hospitable history: it was formerly the Leon Bianco, which hosted royalty, czars, poets, artists and Grand Tour takers.
Children
The hotel shows the Italian’s enduring hospitality to children, with a Family Suite and babysitting if needed.
Gallery
Food & Drink
Top Table
Those overlooking the Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge, of course.
Dress Code
No blank canvases – think bold strokes and big ideas.
Hotel Restaurant
In its dining concept the hotel once again hopes to, if not rewrite, then delicately superimpose history, taking the Rialto Market (a Venetian foodie hub for seven centuries and counting) as its inspiration. Venice M’art, in its sotoportego gallery – a passageway leading to the canal – has dining styles to satisfy all cravings, detailed on Pop Art-style menus. There are cicheti (fried meatballs, artichoke with potato foam, ragu cappuccino); all-day dining with truffled pasta, pea risotto, parmigiana, or octopus rolls and ribeye burgers; gelatos and granitas; toasties, pizzas and fried treats (anchovies and mozzarella, salt cod, pork shoulder); and a coffee bar serving hot from the Moka pot with fried pastries. It might derive from an ancient concept, but feels very fresh and fun – and there’s a boutique selling artful wares to browse when you’re full. For Venetian dining with a more romantic classic feel – white linens, candlelight, water snaking by, a singing gondolier (actually,scratch that last one), the hotel also serves dinner on its sheltered terrace. Shuffle out the deck of retro style recipe cards on your table to decide on your dishes; say, gnocchi in duck sauce, tender liver, rice and peas, and creamy and coffee-infused desserts.
Hotel Bar
On the ground floor, Venice M’Art caters to all drinking denominations with both a cocktail and wine bar. At the former, ‘spritzettos’ muddle prosecco with Campari, Aperol or Select for classic Italian drinking; the Americano M’Art is a bold concoction of vermouth, Campari, soda and orange foam; and the Caustraure Spritz goes nuts, adding a dash of artichoke liqueur and lemon foam to fizz. And, to miss aperitivo hour is unacceptable, so be present for the hotel’s, where cheeses, anchovies and mini toasts are paired with wine or a G&T. And, guests get exclusive access to the Venice Bitters Club on the first piano nobile. The Altana Roof Terrace is for the privileged guests staying in suite 43; however, it can be booked exclusively for events, and we suggest you do, because it overlooks not just the Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge but the entire lagoon, the bell towers and elaborate steeples jabbing the skyline, and out to the Dolomites in the distance.
Last Orders
No need to rush out of bed or snappily vacate a table – here, breakfast runs from 7am to 11am, lunch from 11.30am to 5pm, and dinner from 6pm to midnight.
Room Service
Dine in your room around the clock.
Planes
Venice’s Marco Polo airport is the closest, a 25-minute drive from the city. But… who wants to take the dowdy Strada Regionale (which only goes as far as Piazzale Roma, from which you’ll have to make your own way to the hotel), when you could arrive as people have for centuries, floating over in a vaporetto to get the big reveal as you turn into the Grand Canal – it’s really the only way to arrive.
Trains
Believe it or not, Venice has a train station, just a 20-minute walk or 10-minute float down the canal from the hotel. Santa Lucia is surprisingly well-connected too, with direct routes to Rome, Milan, Florence and more in just a few hours.
Automobiles
Ha, no. With its teeny-tiny alleyways and enthusiastic crowds of tourists there’s really no room to manoeuvre a vehicle through Venice. But, the determined can drive over to the city then park their car in Piazzale Roma before moving to foot or boat. The hotel can help to reserve parking.
Worth Getting Out of Bed For
The Venice Venice Hotel has somehow found itself in the right place in all of the right times (from the Byzantine era through to today) – and that place is opposite the Rialto Market, along the Grand Canal. This means you can be gaily selfie-ing away on the Rialto Bridge in less than five minutes, or seamlessly slipping into a gondola and admiring the reliquaries in St Mark’s Basilica before bellinis at Florians in 10 minutes. While at St Mark’s piazza, climb the Campanile for city-spanning views, drop in at doge-den Palazzo Ducale (passing over the Bridge of Sighs), admire the Torre dell'Orologio’s spectacular edifice, and parse the antiquities of Museo Correr. Day trip to Murano for glassware (and to try your hand at blowing) and Burano for a rainbow backdrop of merrily painted houses; then wend through tiny alleyways to seek out hip handicrafts at ateliers such as Antonia Miletto Gioielli (for bizarrely brilliant bijouterie), Gianni Basso Stampatore (for elegant letterpress stationery), or Declare (for bold modern leather pieces). Curiosities abound: bath tubs and boats full of books in the – sometimes flooded – Libreria Acqua Alta, cursed Ca’ Dario palace, Santa Maria e San Donato church’s ‘dragon’ bones, the lavishly dressed San Nicolò dei Mendicoli from Don’t Look Now… But, sleeping in Fluxus and Arte Povera-themed rooms, next to a genuine Joseph Beuys or Bruce Naumann will lead you down an aesthetically pleasing path through the city’s many many galleries. Find modern masterpieces at the Ca' Pesaro International Gallery, Fondazione Prada or the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (where the art-collecting heiress is also buried with her pets; seek out Bellinis, Tiepolos, Tintorettos and Titian’s luminous Assumption of the Virgin in grand churches and basilicas; and try to time your stay in line with the Biennale, when the halls of the Arsenale and Giardini park are installed with intriguing works.
Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt
This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .
