From the freshly baked banana bread at breakfast eaten on the terrace as the sun begins its watery ascent, to the sumptuous lunchtime anti pasti and irrestible pasta to the Bellini cocktail sipped by the huge swimming pool with its view onto San Giorgio Maggiore, the Cipriani provides a paradise for lovers of luxury and lovers of this magnificent city. Situated on the island of Guidecca, every journey across the waters to St. Mark’s Square provides a view which despite being unchanged for centuries can never fail to shock with its utter beauty and allows the appreciation of Venice from the outside. To gaze at this City from the modern comforts of one of the world’s great hotels is a treat indeed.

As volatile as an Italian’s fabled nature, as fickle as the mythical lumière which inspired Canaletto’s vedute (scenic paintings), it’s no surprise that Venice has been the muse of some of the greatest creators the world has ever known.

Rising out of an endless Adriatic horizon, mysterious as any lost Atlantis, Italy’s legendary city floats above its ruffled lagoon like a brilliant-colored phoenix and on a first-time visit even Tiepolo and Titien must have stood and gaped in awe.

But if the floating queen was unrivalled mistress of trade between Europe and the Orient ,and bulwark of Christendom against the deluge of Turkish expansionism for four long centuries, by the time Byron arrived on the scene in 1817 the tides of power had turned, and the languid Lord - who adored the floating city - penned many a melancholy line about the saddened Serenissima and her palaces ‘falling to wrack and ruin’.

Risen from the flames in extremis, these days most of Venice’s palazzos have been lovingly restored and whether it’s the pink and white marble Palazzo Ducale, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni (home to Peggy Guggenheim’s superb modern art collection), or the Ca’ d’Oro’s marble traceries and gilded ornamentation, Byron’s ‘ruins’ now form a necklace of sumptuous architecture strung out along the legendary Grand Canal. As for the onion-domed Basilica di San Marco - and it’s busy piazza whose exclusive stores, celebrated coffee rooms and vociferous pigeons lap round the basilica’s skirts like the lagoon’s chilly waters do in winter – it’s the stunning centrepiece of the world’s most fabled parure.

One time owner of “Harry’s Bar”, that fabled Venetian watering hotel which counted Onassis amongst it’s clients and still boasts the best dry Martinis in town, Giuseppe Cipriani created his eponymous hotel in the early fifties on a plot of luxuriously isolated undergrowth, overlooking San Giorgio Maggiore church, and the Venetian Lagoon, from La Giudecca’s eastern tip.

Fifty years on and the hotel’s renommé relies on the same combination of unobtrusive service, exquisite décor and subtle luxury which explain its renown in the great Giuseppe’s day.

Refurbished by French decorator, Gérard Gallet, pastel tones, classic furnishings and fabrics signed Fortuny and Rubelli lend an atmosphere of laid-back elegance and deceptive simplicity, belied by top range comfort-fittings such as private Jacuzzi’s, tennis courts and an Olympic swimming pool.

Marble tubs and full air-conditioning add to the Cipriani’s ease factor, and an ideal stuation - just 3 minutes from St Mark’s square - explains why ‘The Cip’, as it’s affectionately known to aficionados, has played host to myths like Steven Spielberg, Joan Collins - and even Jimmy Carter.

Linked by a flowered loggia, the hotel has two 15th century Palazzos whose spacious rooms have spectacular views over to the Doge's Palace, but the jewel in it’s crown has to be the Palladio, suite refurbished in 2002 whose two bed -, 3 bath - interior comes complete with private butler and the services of a personable captain who’ll whisk you on a breathless trip to Venice.

And if you’re still feeling blasé why not take a shorter ride to the Cipriani restaurant where the menu reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the gastronomic art?

Try the creamy Taleggio sprinkled with cracked pepper, or drool over the moist savor of branzino in crosta di sale marino (baked sea bass in a sea-salt crust), and whether you sit out under stars on the dreamy terrace, or sup under Murano chandeliers in the panelled dining room, you’ll finally understand why legendary Venice’s hotel Cip has become a legend in its own right.