Venice, Italy

Ca Maria Adele

Price per night from$259.85

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR239.09), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Baroque elegance

Setting

Canalside charm

With its Murano chandeliers, flock wallpaper and heavy damask fabrics, the Ca Maria Adele is absolutely Venetian, but its African wood, polished concrete and laid-back, bohemian atmosphere mean it is also undeniably modern. Located right opposite the Salute, it is in the heart of Venice's most tranquil area, the art quarter, and the only other tourists you are likely to come across are lost ones.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of Valpolicella

Facilities

Photos Ca Maria Adele facilities

Need to know

Rooms

12, including two suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but later departures may be arranged. Check-in, 2pm, but flexible if the room is not booked.

Prices

Double rooms from £224.90 (€263), including tax at 10 per cent.

More details

Rates include breakfast and soft-drink minibar.

Also

The hotel organises tailored tours around the city and you can take a gondola ride across to the Grand Canal to view the Royal Palace.

Hotel closed

Annually from 7 to 15 January.

At the hotel

Private landing stage, CD/DVD library, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: plasma TV, CD/DVD player, bespoke bath products. Personal shoppers and in-room massages can be arranged, too.

Our favourite rooms

We loved the themed rooms, in particular the seductive Sala Noire, the resplendent red and gold Sala del Doge and Sala del Camino for its huge fireplace. Overlooking the canal and the church, Deluxe room 332 and the Sala dei Mori have the best views. Modern, wood-beamed Suite 336 has a Jacuzzi tub at the foot of the bed.

Packing tips

Comfortable shoes; mosquito repellent in summer.

Also

There’s a two-night minimum stay in high season (four nights during the Venice Biennale (28 May to 1 June 2013). Pets are welcome on request.

Children

This is a grown-up getaway for over-16s only; the apartment suite, with its extra bedroom, is the one to go for if you’re travelling en famille.

Food and Drink

Photos Ca Maria Adele food and drink

Top Table

Find a spot on the ponyskin sofas in the cosy living room, and take your tea there. You’re almost at water level, so the fascinating view of the nearby bridge and church is unlike any you’ll see from the upper floors.

Dress Code

Ducal and decadent.

Hotel restaurant

Only breakfast is served. Italian-style afternoon tea is available on the terrace, weather permitting.

Hotel bar

You can order evening drinks anywhere in the hotel. We suggest the breakfast room or the Moroccan Terrace on the second floor; in summer, you can have a tipple brought to you outside. After 9pm, there’s an honesty bar, stocked with prosecco, spirits and a selection of soft drinks.

Room service

A light, limited menu of salads, snacks and tasting plates is available from 11am until 11pm.

Location

Photos Ca Maria Adele location
Address
Ca Maria Adele
111 Dorsoduro
Venice
Venice 30123
Italy

Planes

From Venice's Marco Polo airport, approach the city by crossing the lagoon on the Alilaguna (www.alilaguna.it) to San Marco, which takes roughly an hour depending on which line you choose. It costs around €30 for the express and €13 for the other routes. From there it’s a quick change to Route 1 of the ACTV (www.actv.it) vaporetto in the direction of Piazzale Roma. Get off at Salute, stroll in front of the church, and Ca Maria Adele will be on your left. Alternatively, Trieste, Verona and Treviso airports are all possibilities. The first two have bus links to their main train stations, and are then a one-hour or three-hour train journey respectively; Treviso has a direct bus (www.atvo.it) link to Piazzale Roma in Venice, from where a 30-minute journey on Route 1 of the vaporetto will take you to Salute.

Trains

Venice’s main station is Venezia Santa Lucia; see Trenitalia (www.trenitalia.com) for information on Italian trains. To reach the hotel, take the vaporetto down the Grand Canal from Santa Lucia to Salute (roughly 30 minutes on Route 1).

Automobiles

Venice is not made for cars and does not allow them into the city, so if you have driven from another part of Italy or the airport, you will need to leave your vehicle either on the mainland, which is easier, cheaper and avoids the sometimes colossal traffic jams, or at the edge of the city centre. If you park on the mainland in Mestre, you can choose between the rail station (and then proceed by train) or the San Giuliano parking lot (and proceed by boat).

Other

The hotel has a private landing-stage for boats.

Worth getting out of bed for

Venice is packed full of churches, museums and galleries. We love the Museum of Modern Art (San Stae waterbus stop). The neighbourhood, Dorsoduro, is arty in the extreme: as well as the Peggy Guggenheim collection (+39 041 240 5411), it’s home to the exhibition spaces of the avant-garde Fondazione Emilio e Annabianco Vedova (+39 041 522 6626) – a ‘floating gallery’, where paintings aren’t hung on the walls, but suspended from the ceiling.
Get a taste of what it feels like to be on a gondola for next to nothing: look for the yellow ‘Traghetto’ signs and follow them to the water. It’s a shuttle gondola service that costs 40c. If you want one to yourself, the average price is €100 an hour.
You’ll find all the designer labels around San Marco, and especially on Calle Larga 22 Marzo. Boutiques and gift shops line the streets between Piazza San Marco and the Rialto. Don’t buy masks in the tourist area: close to the hotels is Ca’Macana on Calle delle Botteghe, which made the masks for Eyes Wide Shut. For something different, buy a forcole, the wooden oar rest on a gondola; Saverio Pastor’s workshop is on Fondamenta Soranzo in Dorsoduro (522 5699). For Murano glass, try to get to the island of Murano itself.
Visit the town of Asolo, among the cypress-covered Dolomite hills, or the island of Torcello, the site of the original main square. The fish market in Rialto runs Tuesdays to Saturdays. Venice has a beach: you can hire cabanas for the day, but they’re not cheap.

Local restaurants

Linea d’Ombra (+39 041 241 1881) on Ponte de l’Umiltà is a great restaurant on the canal, and the perfect plot to head to in summer, thanks to the lovely terrace with views across to the Giudecca, and the chef’s modern take on classic Venetian dishes. Ai Gondolieri (+39 041 528 6396), close to the Guggenheim, is popular with local and visiting carnivores for its meaty Veneto dishes of game and pork, and is famed for its gnocchi and polenta. There’s a decent wine list, too. Waterside on the Zattere, La Piscina is the eatery attached to the historic pensione La Calcina, and makes for breezy terrace dining from a delectably down-to-earth menu (+39 041 520 6466). Cantinone Storico on Fondamenta Bragadin (+39 041 523 9577) is good for seafood, and has an impressive wine cellar. Definitely try to get a seat by the canal in summer or by the window in winter. Ask the waiter to tell you about the specials – and then trust his recommendations.

Across the Grand Canal: For a cosy, wine-bottles-on-the-wall kind of osteria, try Cantina Canaletto (+39 041 521 2661) in Castello. Trattoria alle Testiere on Calle del Mondo Novo (+39 041 522 7220) specialises in fish. At Bancogiro on Campo San Giacometto (+39 041 523 2061), ask for a window seat. Trattoria do Forni on Calle Specchieri (+39 041 523 2148) is very classical; book dinner in the Orient Express room. Ristorante da Fiore on Calle del Scaleter (+39 041721 308) is one of the best restaurants; book a month in advance. Poste Vecie, on Rialto Pescheria (+39 041 721 822), is Venice’s oldest restaurant, reached by a private bridge. Il Refolo is a great pizzeria near the Museum of Modern Art (+39 041524 0016), though not open all year round. Anice Stellato on Fondamenta della Sensa, Cannaregio (+39 041 720 744) does fabulous fish with subtle spicing. Locanda Montin on Fondamenta di Borgo (+39 041 522 7151) serves great antipasti on a vine-covered terrace.

Local cafés

A coffee in Piazza San Marco won’t come cheap, but there’s a reason why the tourists flock there – it’s spectacular; and if you’re lucky you’ll have an orchestral soundtrack. Head to Campo Santa Margherita, where students, bohemian types and families gather to eat. Al Marca on San Polo is good for a pre-dinner drink if you’re north of Ponte Rialto. Peggy Guggenheim Collection Café in the 18th-century Palazzo Venier dei Leoni is a sophisticated spot for a coffee in the wonderful garden of the museum of modern art. It is elegant and peaceful: no wonder the art lover chose this to be her final resting place.

Local bars

Sip a bellini on the floating pontoon of Cip’s Club, watching the sun set over the water. (Hotel Cipriani operates a free boat service to and from its private landing stage.) Try Centrale on Piazza San Marco, for good tunes and great cocktails. Taverna da Baffo in Campo Sant’Agostin stays open until 02h.

Reviews

Photos Ca Maria Adele reviews
Danny Webb

Anonymous review

By Danny Webb, Acting arbiter

Is it how Venice lies along the gulf like an ageing courtesan on her chaise-longue, being caressed by the Adriatic? Maybe it’s the continual rocking of the pontoons. Either way: Venice is sexy. Especially when you are away from family, paperwork and Newsnight in bed for a whole weekend. Ah, Ca Maria Adele – even saying the name of our proposed place of repose is as pleasurable as a kiss of Mrs Smith’s neck.

Splashes from water taxis fuelled by diesel and espresso-pumped young men elicit squeals of pleasure and the occasional ‘Vaffanculo’. I cover Mrs Smith’s ears. No need for us to rush – an idling introduction is what this glamorous getaway needs, and we jump aboard Vaporetto 1 to cross the Grand Canal to Salute.

A few islands later, San Marco comes into sight. Mrs Smith hugs me tightly. Santa Maria della Salute’s fleshy, muscular saints loom next – a soothing contrast to the tourist-besieged San Marco. Here in the bosom of this glorious building lies Ca Maria Adele. A private dock coaxes us to its elegant reception, resplendent in gold marble and deep African teak. We pass dark velvet wall-linings, gold picture frames, yellow flowers and rich oak. ‘Venetian rock star crossed with gothic Withnail,’ muses Mrs Smith. We can’t wait to see our room.

Too early for check-in, we forgo a coffee in the hotel, and take a stroll around Dorsoduro. The neighbourhood is quiet and serene; within a few hundred yards, Mrs Smith and I are alone in shoulder-wide alleys that end at canals. Washing hangs from lines draped across courtyards. We pause in a bar full of chattering locals enjoying cold white wine and crusty bread with prawns before returning to our bellboy, by now poised to show us to our top-floor boudoir.

Ancient oak beams clad a high ceiling above a bed the height of Olympus, as wide as the Grand Canal. At its foot is a gondola-sized bath. Mrs Smith is beside herself. And the view! Santa Maria della Salute looms so large we could take mass from under our duvet.

Reluctantly, we prise ourselves away – the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, former home of the ex-flapper socialite and art passionista, beckons. Minutes later, we’re surrounded by Peggy’s 20th-century collection of Pollocks, Picassos, Mirós and Magrittes. It feels wonderfully naughty to wallow in modern art while touring this historic waterside city.

Masterpieces ogled and appetites whetted, we consult Alessandro at Ca Maria Adele about dinner and he books us into the Linea Dombra on Canale della Giudecca. In a bid to freshen up, I set my sights on the Jacuzzi, and discover, to my delight, that our tub lights up like a Seventies disco. Mrs Smith soon tires of my pyrotechnics and demands attention before we take the two-minute skip to our high-end supper spot.

Leaving the restaurant lighter-headed (and light-walleted), we’re ready to see more of the city by moonlight. Mainly, Piazza San Marco. The late hour means fewer people, delicate lighting and the gentle strains of music from the cafés. Salute, too, has no one around, and it feels as though it’s ours alone. There’s just the sound of lapping water and a distant cat as we stroll back to our hotel.

With its assortment of spirits, ice and lemon slices, a beautifully laid-out honesty bar makes a nightcap on the terrace irresistible. Overlooked by a clocktower (mercifully quiet at night), its palm trees, Moroccan shutters and tables lit from within lend warmth and exoticism. White rose petals sprinkled over a breakfast list on our bed beg us to think of food again… Cheese omelette with bacon and fruit salad, freshly squeezed orange and Jasmine tea will be the boost we need for tomorrow’s touring.

What a wonderful city it is that has you stumbling through an open door into a schoolroom-sized space full of beautiful paintings. We linger in a secret world for 10 minutes until an old gentleman chucks us out. And it isn’t long until we’re eating again, this time tempted into a noisy local trattoria at the end of Via Garibaldi, the widest street in Venice, where a greengrocer’s barge floats in front.

Then it’s on to Harry’s Bar – Mrs Smith is intrigued. We’ll save you the trouble: it’s a bit expensive and the waiters should visit Ca Maria Adele for a lesson in how charming staff can be. Inevitably, our hotel’s seductive lounge draws us back. Mrs Smith picks through coffee-table books and international papers while I sneak off to the corner of our room that has a leather chair in the eaves. Here, in what Mrs Smith dubs my Venetian ‘man shed’, I learn some of my lines before bed.

Mrs Smith has one insistence for our last day. Her heroine is Katharine Hepburn. Our task? To find where she fell into into the canal in 1950s film Summer Madness. As luck would have it, it’s nearby, at the Campo San Barnaba. After a photo session (and some strange looks), we settle on the water’s edge for our final lunch: a couple of rolls liberated from breakfast, and half a bottle of wine. We dine like young student lovers listening to the throb of liners and car ferries leaving the lagoon. We linger as long as we can, but Alessandro has ordered our water taxi. Plotting our return, we hope it won’t be long until we once again savour solitude in a crowded city.

Book now

Price per night from $259.85