The Gritti Palace, A Luxury Collection Hotel ranks #11 on our 2026 list of the best anniversary hotels in the world. The case below explains why — the hotel itself, what it does specifically for milestone celebrations, and the alternatives we measured it against.
“Hemingway's Venice address. The Riva Aqua terrace looks straight at Santa Maria della Salute. Restored beautifully by Marriott but the bones are 15th century.”
The hotel itself
A 1525 doge's residence on the Grand Canal directly opposite Santa Maria della Salute, restored under Chuck Chewning, with the Riva Lounge terrace as the most-photographed sunset spot in San Marco. Marriott's Luxury Collection at its most properly historic.
"For five centuries, the address you reached by gondola when you arrived in Venice on important business. The Riva Lounge terrace, three steps above the Grand Canal looking at the Salute, is the most-asked-for proposal table in the city."
The Gritti Palace was built in 1525 as the residence of Doge Andrea Gritti, the elected head of the Venetian Republic from 1523 to 1538 and one of the principal architects of Venice's 16th-century geopolitical recovery from the League of Cambrai. The palazzo's position — at the eastern end of Campo Santa Maria del Giglio, with its primary façade on the Grand Canal directly opposite Santa Maria della Salute — was, at the time it was built, the most prestigious private address in Venice. The building remained in the Gritti family until the 19th century, passed through several hands, was a private residence and aristocratic guesthouse for much of the 20th century, and became the Hotel Gritti Palace in 1948. CIGA acquired it in 1958, ITT Sheraton in 1994, and the Starwood Luxury Collection (now Marriott Luxury Collection) since 2006. The most recent major restoration — fifteen months, fifty million euros — was completed in 2013 under the direction of American interior designer Chuck Chewning, who reframed the property's Venetian-baroque vocabulary while leaving the historic envelope and the principal salons untouched.
Why it works for an anniversary
Anniversary trips to great cities live or die on the dinner of the trip. The hotel must do the celebration without the city having to do the work — a private room in a Michelin restaurant inside the building, a bar where the right toast is poured, a turn-down service that knows tonight is the one. The cities that do this best — Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, Vienna — have grand-dame hotels measured in centuries, not decades.
London's grand-dame hotels — Claridge's, the Connaught, the Dorchester, the Savoy, the Ritz — are mostly owned by the same Maybourne, Dorchester Collection, and Sultan-of-Brunei portfolios. For anniversaries the case is structural. These hotels have been booked for milestone celebrations by the same families for four generations. The bar at midnight has both old money and the people about to make new money. A milestone anniversary in a London grand-dame is an anniversary held in an institution.
The hotel has 82 rooms and suites across the principal palazzo and an adjacent annex, distributed over four floors. The accommodations divide cleanly into Grand Canal-facing rooms (the headline category, with direct view of the Salute), lateral-facing rooms (looking onto Campo Santa Maria del Giglio or onto the smaller side canal), and the Serenissima Suites and Grand Canal Suites at the upper end of the inventory. The signature room is the Heritage Suite, a 100-square-metre named for its frescoes and the original 18th-century stuccowork. Rooms across the property combine Venetian '700-style hand-painted wood furnishings, Murano chandeliers, Rubelli silks, and the Acqua di Parma amenity programme; bathrooms are generally Carrara marble with Sherle Wagner fittings. The palazzo's narrow proportions mean that the smaller categories are smaller in scale than at some competing properties — a 30-square-metre Deluxe is normal here — but the room hardware is uniformly at the global Luxury Collection standard.
The Gritti's signature amenity is the Riva Lounge, the canal-side terrace at the front of the palazzo. The terrace is three steps above the Grand Canal, set back behind a low parapet, and looks directly at the dome and façade of Santa Maria della Salute on the opposite bank. It is, by general consensus, the most photographed sunset hotel terrace in Venice, and is the most-requested proposal-and-anniversary setting at this rate level. The hotel's principal restaurant, the Club del Doge, runs the formal Italian programme; the Bar Longhi, in the lobby, is the cocktail destination, named for the Pietro Longhi 18th-century paintings on the walls. The hotel does not have a swimming pool or a full spa — the Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Spa is small (treatment rooms only). For guests for whom pool and large-format spa matter, the recommendation is the Cipriani; for guests for whom Grand Canal address is the point, the Gritti is the answer.
Where it ranks against rivals
For a 2026 milestone anniversary at this level, the most direct comparisons are Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach in Palm Beach (#10 on this list), Belmond Hotel Caruso in Amalfi Coast (#12 on this list), Le Meurice in Paris (#9 on this list). The Gritti Palace, A Luxury Collection Hotel earns the higher rank for one or two specific reasons covered in the verdict above. The other properties are not lesser hotels — in some cases the answer for your particular celebration is the runner-up. The city-specific page below has the full local ranking.
Practical: getting in
Address: Campo Santa Maria Del Giglio, 2467, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy. Anniversary-suited categories — the upgraded suites, the rooms with the morning view — book six to twelve months ahead. The full review at the hotel page has current rates, the room categories worth paying up for, and the dining and spa programmes worth booking pre-arrival. Use our anniversary occasion page for the broader context, or the Venice city guide for what else to do while you’re there.