Ca’ da Mosto has faced the Rialto Bridge since the thirteenth century. Forty-three rooms now sit behind its Byzantine arches.
The boat slows at the door. In the water beside the landing, a marble mother holds a marble son. It is a Fabio Viale sculpture, and it sets the tone before anyone has checked in. The Venice Venice treats art as part of the plumbing.
The address is Cannaregio 5631, directly across the Grand Canal from the market side of Rialto. The hotel sits in the car-free zone, so guests arrive on foot or by water taxi. Ca’ da Mosto is a palace of arches and carved stone, and the restoration keeps its bones in view. Ten separate apartments were reassembled to make the house whole.
The rooms
Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo designed the interiors. They pulled from the twentieth-century avant-garde, and they mix architecture, fashion and art in the same room. Ceilings run high. The windows are large and face the canal or the city, and the light in them changes by the hour.
The grand suite takes the piano nobile. It measures 2,045 square feet, with triple-height ceilings, frescoed walls, a terrace, a grand piano and a dining table for ten. Room 01 has a private swimming pool, which the hotel says is the only one in a hotel room on the Venetian mainland. Rates start at EUR 995.
The art
The collection includes works by Christo and Jannis Kounellis, alongside pieces made for the building. Nothing hangs as decoration. The palazzo is the gallery, and guests walk through it on the way to breakfast.
Venice M’Art holds the ground floor. It runs as a restaurant, an exhibition space and a shop selling artisan goods and limited-edition clothing. The dining room sits in a sotoportego, the covered passage between the entrance courtyard and the canal terrace. Steak, veal and fresh pasta come out of the kitchen, and an orange-foam cocktail comes from the bar.
The windows are the best thing in the house, and the house has a lot going for it.
Léa FontaineUpstairs
The Venice Bitter Club takes the first piano nobile. It is open to guests and members only, a room for the hour between the afternoon and dinner. Higher still, the Altana roof terrace looks over the Rialto, the Grand Canal and the roofline of the city.
The spa offers deep-tissue, hot stone, Swedish and aromatherapy massages, along with facials, body scrubs and a steam room. Couples’ treatment rooms are available. The concierge books private boats to Murano and Burano, and the water starts at the front step.
A salon under glass chandeliers, Gothic windows over the Grand Canal — Courtesy of The Venice Venice
The verdict
Venice has no shortage of palaces turned into hotels. Most hang a curtain between the guest and the building. The Venice Venice leaves the stone, the frescoes and the canal light where they are, and adds a piano, a sculpture and a very good table. The Rialto is the view. Plan the mornings around it.
The Venice Venice is at Cannaregio 5631, Venice; venicevenice.com.
Photography courtesy of The Venice Venice