Venice is at its best when the day-trippers have gone home, and the right hotel lets you have it that way. Airelles Palladio, on the island of Giudecca, is the one I would choose. Here are five reasons to stay.
1. You sleep inside Venetian history
The hotel is built around a building Andrea Palladio designed in 1561, where young women of the Zitelle Institute learned lace-making; Louis XIV was crowned wearing a collar made there. Next door, Villa Frollo has been a Venetian residence since 1677 and has had Casanova, Eleonora Duse and Sartre as guests. It all sits in a hectare of gardens.
2. St Mark’s is across the water
The hotel faces St Mark’s Square across the Giudecca Canal, and the boat takes five minutes. You get the view of the city without its crowds.
3. Four kitchens under one roof
Norbert Niederkofler cooks at Villa Frollo, with a menu built on the lagoon and its producers. Matsuhisa by Nobu is here too, alongside Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s first restaurant in Italy and pastry by Cedric Grolet.
4. A spa with room to breathe
The Airelles Spa by Guerlain covers 1,700 square metres over three floors, which the hotel says makes it the largest in Venice, with an indoor pool, a hammam and a sauna.
5. The city after dark
Guests can see St Mark’s Basilica at night and visit the Doge’s Palace, and both are included in the stay. For a family, Villa Mason has three bedrooms and its own pool.
Before you book
There are 17 rooms and 28 suites, plus the villa. Ask about winter dates before you plan around them, and ask about the evening visits when you book, not when you arrive.