Hotel Cipriani & Palazzo Vendramin, Venice, Italy
Hotel Overview
Review of Hotel Cipriani & Palazzo Vendramin, by Mary Lussiana
The Hotel Cipriani & Palazzo Vendramin in Venice, Italy provides a paradise for lovers of luxury hotels and lovers of a 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. It is such a treat to gaze at this city from the modern comforts of one of the world's greatest luxury hotels.
Imagine this: Freshly baked banana bread at breakfast eaten on the terrace as the sun begins its watery ascent. And this: The sumptuous lunchtime anti-pasti, irresistible pasta and the Bellini cocktail sipped by the huge swimming pool with a view onto San Giorgio Maggiore. You can have all this at the Cipriani and more besides. A feeling of exclusivity permeates this luxury hotel, letting guests feel, as they survey the city from their little bit of the island, like part of a truly special club.
Hotel Cipriani's 104 air conditioned rooms are all decorated in a sumptuous, classic Italian style that's grand without being gaudy. Rich fabrics and antique furniture is offset by the rooms' clean lines and slick modern technology - all rooms come with satellite TV and internet connections.
Facilities
Awards
"Readers Choice Award", Conde Nast 07; "Gold List", Conde Nast 06Who stays here?
Madonna, Al Pacino, Steven Spielberg, Brad Pitt, Jim Carey, Paul McCartney, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow and Uma Thurman.
Come for...
- Refuge from the masses
- Unbeatable views of the lagoon and the city
- The only Olympic-sized outdoor hotel pool in Venice
- The two private speedboats
Not Suitable for...
- Budget travel - this is one of the most expensive hotels in the world
Children
Extra beds for children and baby-sitting services are available. A children's club and menu is also available.
Eating in
Breakfast is a suitably splendid affair, held in a frescoed room with lagoon-side terrace, but the Fortuny and its two magnificent terraces are the main dining attraction. Dishes are simple and fresh, dress-code is strictly jacket and tie and children under 8 are not allowed. Cip's Club grill and pizzeria has gained a good reputation for its fresh fish and home-made pasta.
The Press Say
"Any visiting celebrity worth their paparazzi has checked into the Cipriani." Conde Nast 08Reviews
Review of Hotel Cipriani & Palazzo Vendramin, by Heidi Fuller-Love
Hotel Cipriani & Palazzo Vendramin is a fabled Venice luxury hotel which counted Onassis amongst its clients and still boasts the best dry martinis in town. Giuseppe Cipriani created this eponymous hotel in the early fifties on a plot of luxuriously isolated undergrowth overlooking San Giorgio Maggiore church and the Venetian Lagoon.
Refurbished by French decorator, Gérard Gallet, pastel tones, classic furnishings and fabrics lend an atmosphere of laid-back elegance and deceptive simplicity, belied by top range comfort-fittings such as private Jacuzzis, tennis courts and an Olympic swimming pool. Just three minutes from St Mark's square, it is in an ideal location, and has played host to myths like Steven Spielberg, Joan Collins and even Jimmy Carter.
The Cipriani's restaurant has a menu that reads like a 'who's who' of the gastronomic art. Try the creamy Taleggio sprinkled with cracked pepper, or drool over the moist flavor of branzino in crosta di sale marino (baked sea bass in a sea-salt crust). 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 it has become a legend in its own right.
Linked by a flowered loggia, the hotel covers two 15th-century palazzos whose spacious 104 rooms and suites have spectacular views over the Doge's Palace. The jewel in its crown has to be the Palladio Suite whose two-bedroom and three-bathroom interior comes complete with private butler and the services of a personable captain who'll whisk you on a breathless trip to Venice.