Arriving after dark on the first Friday in February, we step straight out of the terminal onto a pontoon, where our sleek Riva is waiting for us.
Speeding across the lagoon to Venice, the freezing evening air dispelling any London fatigue, is wonderfully atmospheric. As we approach the maze of its canals, our driver slows, allowing us to drink in the sorbet palazzos and jaunty bridges under the cloak of night.
It is eerily quiet, the occasional window lit by the glow of a lamp and affording a glimpse of storied wooden beams and well-thumbed bookcases. Only half an hour after leaving the airport, we pull up alongside stone steps on the Canal Della Giudecca.
Stay
Set in a 16th century palace that once belonged to the shipping firm Adriatica — its Gothic logo emblazoned on a handsome pink facade — Il Palazzo Experimental is our home for the weekend. It faces out over the Giudecca on the Zattere, the promenade on the southern side of the Dorsodoro, Venice’s laidback, university district. Cultural landmarks and imposing churches rub shoulders with perky bacaro and low-key canalside homes. Peaceful and slow, it feels like a place to take the pulse of everyday Venetian life. It is a 15-minute (fast) walk from the tourist drag around San Marco, but with the feel of a separate city.
Inside, Il Palazzo has been dressed by Dorothée Meilichzon, the long-term interior designer for the Experimental Group. If you’re harking after traditional, brocade-heavy Venetian furnishings from your Venetian hotel stay, look away now. Its spaces are light and polished, with nods to the Art Deco movement and a playful stripe motif inspired by the city’s old gondola mooring posts. Its good-looking feeding and watering holes are open to the neighbourhood, adding a morning to night buzz — with its expansive garden and rooftop becoming real draws in the warmer months.
Each of the 32 suites looks over canal or garden, but our first floor suite was extra special, benefitting from a trio of Gothic arched windows and extra high ceilings. A vertiginous arched headboard took centre stage and mingled with terrazzo floors and curvy, contemporary furnishings.
What to do
Venice is a city to get lost in. Given that you can walk from one diagonal of the mainland to the other in about 45 minutes, it is best to turn off your Google Maps and follow your nose, twisting your way through the narrowest of streets and crossing its labyrinth of canals. If you must make a plan, Il Palazzo is a great starting point, sharing its district with both the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and the Gallerie dell’Academia. The former sits in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, looking out over the Grand Canal, and houses one of the most significant collections of European and American art of the 20th century.
Afterwards, walk northwards, stopping at the Basilica Santa Maria dei Frari on San Polo to see Titian’s Assumption, before coming to San Tomo. Here, you can still cross the Grand Canal like a local with the traghetto, which costs a fraction of the tourist trap gondolas you will see all over town. Once over, make for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi near the Rialto Bridge, a venerated department store which lived as a post office under Mussolini. Up on the rooftop (booking ahead is advised), you will find one of the most spectacular 36-degree views of Venice — especially romantic if the low winter sun is about to set.
Eat & Drink
When in Venice, set aside a healthy amount of time to eat your way around, up and down the canals, stopping like locals do for a small glass or a spritz and a plate for cicchetti, which are mostly topped with the bounty of the island’s lagoon. Start close to the hotel at Al Bottegon, cheap and laidback, it thrums all afternoon with a delightfully mixed crowd; next, tick off neighbours All’Arco and Do Mori, for a taste of a traditional Venetian bacaro, accompanied by a spritz (with Select) and cod-fish; then, lose the crowds by walking over to Canareggio, and seek out natural wines at the tiny Vino Vero; before finally settling at Paradiso Perduto and Al Timon.
The latter is delightful at any time of day, but is an especially inspired choice for whiling away a wintery Sunday afternoon. If you are tired of cicchetti, there are steaming bowls of gnocchetti and rugged steaks to soak up any excesses.
For something a little more structured and with added boasting rights, drinks on the Gritti Palace’s terrace on a sunny winter’s day are something to savour. Order a French 75 — or a Bellini when in season — and watch Rivas purr up and down the Grand Canal. What is more, you are just around the corner from Osteria alla Testiere, just the place to have spaghetti vongole and tiramisu for dinner. Small but perfectly formed, its charming owner Luca only serves the freshest catches from that day at the Rialto Market. Just make sure you book well ahead, like most dinner options in Venice.
Stay up late
As a city that sleeps early and often, especially in the depths of winter, there are only a few places to burn the midnight oil. One of the best options is right under your nose at Il Palazzo. Its diminutive cocktail den closes around 2am at weekends — or whenever the party winds down. Meander back here after dinner and you’ll find it stuffed to bursting with young Venetians dancing to cheesy pop classics and spilling out onto the canalside with negronis in hand.
Details
Trovaso Classic Double room starts from 220 EUR per night, a Trovaso Classic Single from 135 EUR per night; palazzoexperimental.com
BA and Easyjet both fly to Venice Marco Polo from London; Il Palazzo Experimental will organise a private Riva service from the terminal to the hotel.
