Usually, a hotel room with a view of a major thoroughfare isn’t a major selling point but in Venice different rules apply.
The first time I had a room that overlooked the Grand Canal, was also the first time I felt I began to understand the city. That was at the Al Ponte Antico. It was a warm spring night and I had one of the suites on the ground floor.
The first thing I did was open the french windows to see the water lapping a couple of feet below me. Vaporettos swung by along with sleek water taxis and police boats, and as night fell, a group of students went past in a rickety boat where the engine spluttered and laughter washed into my room. In the morning, I could see boats arriving with fruit and fish for the market. Suddenly, Venice felt like a living city.
You’re going to pay handsomely for the privilege, but everyone should wake up to a Grand Canal view once in their life. Not all Grand Canal views are equal. I’m in thrall to the Al Ponte’s views – it’s on a delightful curve of the canal where majesty and the pulse of the city meet and while it doesn’t have a restaurant, it’s an impeccably-run hotel with a particularly charming terrace for an aperitivo. Another good choice here is the Palazzetto Pisani.
Looking something more intimate? Cima Rosa, bookable through i-escape is a boutique five bedroom B&B run by an Italian-American couple in the quiet, charming Santa Croce area. Three bedrooms overlook the Grand Canal.
Head closer to the mouth, hotels get bigger, The Sina Palazzo Sant’Angelo was my second canal view. Yes, I’m spoiled. It is a slightly grander part of the Grand Canal. Less intimate, it’s opposite the quintessentially pinkly Gothic Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a chosen spot for Venice’s police to rev up their boat engines for tourist effect. Hotels along this stretch have proliferated in recent years. You’ll also find Palazzo Barbarigo where the junior suites overlook the Grand Canal.
Most hotels overlooking the Grand Canal tend to embrace maximalism with brocade, velvet, gilding and a sense of the baroque but the Aman Venice pares things back, albeit it in a highly luxurious way. Housed in a 16th century palazzo, guests arrive by boat and the original features of the building take centre stage. Since George and Amal Clooney married from the hotel in 2014, it has returned to its lowkey ways (or as lowkey as any hotel that has a Tiepolo ceiling can be).
Following the Grand Canal, just before the Accademia Bridge, you reach the lesser known four star luxury of the Hotel Palazzo Stern and the more glitzy Sina Centurian Palace.
However, the grand dame of the Grand Canal hotels is still the Gritti Palace. When I’ve stayed, I’ve never scored a canal view at the hotel but I live in hope; the view is one of Venice’s best, across the water to the wedding cake Santa Maria della Salute church. Of the rooms, canal views are largely reserved for the suites, including the Hemingway and the most requested is the Peggy Guggenheim.
