The Gritti Palace

The Hotel

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.

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.

The Gritti Palace is the most architecturally distinguished of the Grand Canal addresses, the most central (a four-minute walk to St. Mark's Square), and — by the consensus of the major editorial guides — the best-located luxury hotel in Venice. It is consistently ranked among the world's top 100 hotels by Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler. Its competition is essentially Aman Venice for the historic-architecture proposition (the Aman is more decorated, the Gritti has the better view) and The St. Regis Venice for the Grand Canal-near-San-Marco proposition (the St. Regis is larger and has a private garden, the Gritti has the more decorated history).

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