Splendid Venice Hotel

Italy

With its majestic tapestry of canals and grand 16th- and 17th-century palaces and piazzas, Venice, the city miraculously built on water, unfailingly enchants. You are never more than a winding alleyway or bridge away from a secluded spot, with lively cicchetti bars, traditional pastry shops and gothic squares that on first glance appear undiscovered.

It’s hard to better Splendid Venice when it comes to location; both St Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge are just a stone’s throw away, while crooning gondoliers gliding by the hotel’s private water entrance add further exclamation points. Feeling more intimate than the sum of its 165 rooms, the classic bedrooms make for a playground of Venetian damask, sumptuous velvet armchairs, marble bathrooms, and views over the crisscross waterways or labyrinthine streets. After days spent primarily getting lost, the exceptionally comfortable beds give cause to linger but restaurant La Maschere, twinkling in the glass-roofed courtyard, is worth exploring for plates of delicate home-made pasta with seafood gathered from the lagoon and desserts served from a generously packed retro trolley. The comfy canal-level bar, with arched windows overlooking the water and sparkling Murano glass chandeliers, was made for a Venetian spritz or fragrant bellini, but on warmer evenings the roof terrace beckons with the promise of sprawling views over the endlessly alluring city. Doubles from £168.