Style
Classic Italian palazzo
Location
Ideally located on the Grand Canal and just a few steps from the Piazza San Marco, this luxury hotel is in the very heart of Venice’s historic attractions. The area is full of inviting bars, historic churches including Santo Stefano, and monumental palaces. Just a little further away is the Bridge of Sighs, the fabulous Doge’s Palace, St Mark’s Basilica, the Campanile and the Palazzo Ducale with its gondoliers moored up along the waterfront.
Highlights and Features
Built as the Palace of the Doge, Andrea Gritti in 1525, this prestigious residence can now be enjoyed, if only for a night or two, by guests at the Hotel Gritti Palace. This luxury hotel in Venice still retains the air of a private palazzo which is perhaps what makes it so attractive to notable guests which have included Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and Greta Garbo.
Murano chandeliers, damask furnishings and a golden grand piano look completely at home beneath the ornate gold trimmed ceilings. Boasting recent awards as one of Travel and Leisure’s Top 50 European Hotels, and annually receiving Condé Nast Traveler awards, this is certainly one of the finest luxury hotels in Venice, if not the world.
Guest rooms are beautifully appointed o a very high standard with comfortable chairs, fine bed linen, tasteful artwork and plenty of space to spread out and relax. Many of the rooms and suites have fabulous views of the Grand Canal and the nearby historic waterfront buildings. Begin the day rested, with a breakfast on the Terrazzo Gritti as you plan your day’s sightseeing. Take time for a beauty treatment or book a guided tour with the knowledgeable Clef d’Or concierge.
The Hotel Gritti Palace has a highly recommended Bar Longhi, known for its elegant décor and atmosphere as well as for its fabulous artwork and Murano glass appliqués. If the weather is fine, tables are set on the Grand Canal Terrace, a place to savour the beautiful view of Venice’s Grand Canal. Alternatively, enjoy dinner at the Zagat listed Club del Doge which caters to just 60 diners.
The Hotel Gritti Palace is certainly one of the finest luxury hotels in Venice and is bound to make your stay both special and memorable.
Detailed Review
Independent Reviews
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"Probably Venice's best hotel. Despite the luxury tag, retains old world Italian charm"
Hotel Gritti Palace
By Jamie Dunford Wood
Ex-CIGA Hotels and now part of the all powerful Starwood Group’s ’Luxury Collection’, it remains to be seen whether the Gritti will be able to maintain its unique character. The last thing it wants is restoration, because despite its grandeur, its price, its reputation, it still manages to preserve the character of a family run albergo in the traditional Italian style. Downstairs the succession of public rooms seem cosy, inviting you to make this home, with none of the glamourous but weary bustle of the Danieli. Low, painted wooden beams vie with oils of past doges on marble, stone and fabric covered walls, whilst a magical bar, with walls of antique venetian mirror glass, gives onto a terrace restaurant overlooking that most overhyped view in the world, the Grand Canal. The point about the Grand Canal is that the views are all those from the canal, of palaces and churches and romantic diners in little canal-side restaurants - not so much of the people actually in the palaces, not at this end at any rate, who get an endless succession of vaporetti and camera wielding gondola boats of Japanese tourists. Still, the views from the few rooms with canal views (13, and 3 suites) get a nice view, if not a great one, with the virtue of being quotable - ’I had a room with great sunset views’ might not turn heads, but ’I was overlooking the Grand Canal’ certainly ought to. There are just 91 rooms and 6 suites. Cool cream and gilt corridors with a thin strip of blue carpet on brown marble lead to generally largish rooms, with pretty but surprisingly plain furnishings, nicely understated - traditional Venetian chandeliers, swagged curtains, little antique details like carriages clocks, antique furniture (if not of the best quality), and decorative stuccoed walls with marble-effect panels in blues and creams. Others are in pale yellow, with painted Venetian furniture and elegantly sculpted bedheads. Bathrooms are generally small, with no modern luxuries like twin sinks or separate showers or, heavens forbid, steam proof mirrors. Canal view rooms generally have two large windows - if you spend this money, insist that they do - and those on the second floor have the highest ceilings. Some rooms - again the canal side rooms above all - boast small antique oil paintings. The word which comes to mind when assessing this famous hotel is ’tranquillo’. Long may it remain so, ’Luxury Collection’ notwithstanding.
A Travel + Leisure 2006 World's Best - Top 100 hotels Europe