Venice has no shortage of grand hotels, including a run of glossy new arrivals. But something is reassuring about stepping into an icon. Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, is exactly that: a Venice institution as established as the Biennale or the Film Festival.
For seventy years it has held its prime spot on the island of Giudecca, ever since Giuseppe Cipriani dreamed up a hideaway across the water from Piazza San Marco. Built in 1956, at the dawn of the jet-set era, it has amassed seven decades of stories: Paul McCartney signing the butlers’ guitars, Princess Diana reportedly declaring herself ‘home at last’ on its steps. It was Cipriani, at his own Harry's Bar (itself a haunt of the glitterati), who invented the Bellini, its rosy hue inspired by a Venetian sunset.
Wallpaper* checks into Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice
What’s on your doorstep?
Cipriani’s original vision was simple: a hotel close to Piazza San Marco, but far from its crowds. Giudecca still delivers on that promise, adrift, it seems, in a charmed world of its own making. An evening stroll here is accompanied by little more than the sounds of birdsong, the murmur of diners and water lapping the promenade.
Giudecca also serves as a reminder of why Venice is one of the most beautiful cities in the world: a mix of medieval, Renaissance and baroque architecture, arched bridges, and cafés and restaurants spilling onto wooden pavilions. Doge’s Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, the Grand Canal and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection are all within easy reach – though such proximity feels almost improbable from the tranquil folds of Hotel Cipriani.
Who’s behind the design?
Over the years, the property has expanded into the adjoining 15th-century Palazzo Vendramin and been acquired by Sea Containers before joining Belmond under LVMH in 2018. It is a storied history, but not one the hotel is content to rest on. A multi-phase renovation by Peter Marino – the architect and designer who has done much to define the modern language of luxury retail – is currently underway. This year, the transformation has delivered a Dior Spa and a reimagined Oro, the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant.
The lobby at Hotel Cipriani
Marino, who chairs the Venetian Heritage Foundation and brings an insider’s grasp of the city’s craft traditions, has said his renovation isn’t about reinvention. Instead, he’s balancing three threads: the handcrafted heritage of historic Venice (Murano glass, antique furniture, museum-quality art); the glamour of the 1950s and ’60s ‘dolce vita’; and a current of contemporary art and design, drawing on the influence of the Biennale. His touch shows in the luminous, double-height lobby, its seamless flow into the fountain garden and pool, and in thirteen newly redesigned suites.
The room to book
Accommodations range from 21-square-metre Double Rooms to Exclusive Suites starting at 105 square metres. At the top end, the Palladio Suite offers 180-degree lagoon views, while the Dogaressa Suite looks across the water to Piazza San Marco.
The ‘room to book’, however, is of course one of Marino's redesigns – chief among them the Serenissima and Laguna Suites, where traditional terrazzo floors meet hand-blown chandeliers and 17th-century cabinets are set beside contemporary sculptures. The palette – creams, pale greens, warm bronze, silvery grey, soft blue – echoes the shimmer of the lagoon.
The Serenissima Suite
Staying for drinks and dinner?
Oro has been reimagined by Marino as an homage to gold, down to the gilded plates and table decorations. Chef Vania Ghedini lightly inflects local ingredients – shellfish, seaweed, 36-month-old Parmigiano Reggiano – with Maghrebi notes of her heritage: cardamom, verbena, sesame.
Elsewhere, dinner at Cip’s Club at sunset is hard to beat. Suspended over the water, the whole scene glows as gold-drenched as Oro. Chef Roberto Gatto keeps things hyper-local and unfussy – a fresh catch from the Rialto market, or a plate of traditional Veneto pasta.
Il Porticciolo is the hotel's beach bar, and no visit is complete without a Bellini made to Cipriani's original recipe at the Seagull Bar – sipped, as tradition dictates, alongside a plate of carpaccio. Breakfast is its own ritual: Marostica cherries, honey from the island of Sant'Erasmo and Pan del Doge while watching the gondolas and vaporetti on their morning rounds.
Where to switch off
This spring brought the Marino-designed Dior Spa, spanning two floors with five treatment rooms and a boutique stocking Dior beauty products. Hotel Cipriani is also home to the only Olympic-sized, seawater-heated pool in central Venice – the slightly farcical but happy result of a feet-to-metres miscalculation during construction.
The Dior Spa
Then there are the gardens – arguably the hotel’s ace in giving it the feel of a country estate rather than a city palazzo. Named the Casanova Gardens after the Venetian who is said to have courted lovers there, they're planted with rose-covered arches, Annabelle hydrangeas and pomegranate trees, and host, according to the hotel, a rabbit, three ducks and some chickens.
The verdict
Seventy years on, Hotel Cipriani still trades on Giuseppe Cipriani's original promise: the allure of Venice, without the crowds. Marino's renovation brings the hotel into the present while holding fast to the details that have long defined its legend: Bellinis at sunset, the cypress-filled gardens, and an archive of stories from the golden age of travel.
Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice is located at Giudecca, 10, 30133 Venice, Italy