Venice, Italy

Hotel Metropole Venezia

Price per night from$347.10

Price information

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

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR300.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Hotel Metropole Venezia Photos

Style

Museum-worthy manse

Setting

Lagoon-side seat

Explore

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The fact that Hotel Metropole Venezia has a floor dedicated to decorative fans sets the tone for your stay. Hospitality heroes, the Beggiato family, haven’t just accrued a fascinating antiques collection but notable guests, too — from Freud to Patti Smith to Lenny Kravitz — and they sit on layers of history, dating back to when Vivaldi taught students here. This legacy is felt in the no-holds-barred lavishness of rooms and the bohemian feel of the crowd it draws.  

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Facilities

Photos Hotel Metropole Venezia facilities

Need to know

Rooms

66, including seven suites and one apartment.

Check–Out

Noon, and check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability (there may be an extra charge).

More details

Rates include a buffet breakfast (à la carte dishes are charged). A minimum-night stay may apply during events or public holidays.

Also

While some public areas are navigable by wheelchair, the rooms, unfortunately, are not suitable for guests with mobility issues.

At the hotel

Citrus garden and orangery, concierge, boutique, charged laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: air-conditioning, TV, tea- and coffee-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, bathrobes and slippers, custom black-pepper room scent and bespoke bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Minimalists, look away. This hotel is for die-hard maximalists; after all, there’s a whole floor dedicated to decorative fans and a comprehensive collection of crucifixes. Go for gold — and cherubs and rich damasks and oil paintings and Venetian mirrors — with the richly dressed Damasco Exclusive Suite; the Porta d’Oro Suite with its gilded 18th-century door, or the Desiderio Suite with its extremely lavish furnishings. The San Giorgio Apartment offers more privacy and the chance to feel like a resident contessa; or, if a city view turns your head more, book a suite with an altana (wooden terrace).

Poolside

Wealth really is health at the spa’s plunge pool — all around it is enough gold leaf to delight a Doge. It’s part of a thermal circuit (heated to 37C in winter and 28C come summer) and has hydromassage jets for added money-can-buy blissfulness.

Spa

It’s impossible not to glow or sparkle when you’re ensconced in a spa lined with gold leaf and hung with Fortuny- style chandeliers, or while hanging out in a candlelit hammam with a canal view. But decadent-as-the-decor treatments from East and West (massages, black-soap scrubs, a spot of collagen-enhanced ‘bio-lifting’) will make you look even more luminous. Spells in the chromotherapy shower or a brisk turn under the ice waterfall will also rev up that radiance. Couple’s treatments can be arranged, but for to-the-max romance, book an exclusive 90-minute session.

Packing tips

How many ballgowns and tuxes can you fit into a Rimowa roller?

Also

If you’re staying here, some kind of wish has surely been granted, but if you want to push that luck further, there’s a 14th-century wishing well hidden in the garden. And if you like the hotel's custom scent, you can buy it in the boutique.

Pet‐friendly

Pets can stay in rooms on request for €50 a night each. This charge includes a cushioned basket, mat, water bowl and special ‘do not disturb’ sign. They're not allowed in the restaurant. See more pet-friendly hotels in Venice.

Children

Kids with a healthy respect for antiques can stay at Hotel Metropole (charged as an adult from three years and up). The Grand Deluxe sleeps three, or some suites and the apartment have multiple bedrooms. Babysitting is available on request.

Food and Drink

Photos Hotel Metropole Venezia food and drink

Top Table

Venice has a surprising amount of green space for its square-footage, and luckily the hotel has a garden, dating back to the 1500s and dotted with citrus trees, scented with jasmine, hung with white veils and open for dining from April till September.

Dress Code

Honestly, you could probably go full Carnival here (mask, feathered hat, bustle, brocaded frock coat and all) and you’d blend right in.

Hotel restaurant

Orientalbar & Bistrot is a low-key hangout — just kidding, there are red-velvet sofas, 19th-century suits of armour, Fortuny lamps shaped like dragons, carved panelling, multi-hued marble inlays… But there’s substance to this all-of-the-things styling, with neon script by artist Joseph Kosuth and an authentic bohemian air. The menu is pan-Asian, with some Italian flair; so, you might have tuna tataki with sesame and cardamom, or tagliolini with truffle and pecorino cream. And a selection of cicchetti plates skew both ways.

Hotel bar

The bistro doubles up as the bar, where drinks also hail from two different time zones. The signature Negroni and vermouth-slugged Spritz Antico might be pure paisan; but more exotically flavoured cocktails fly you over to tropical Asian climes with every sip. Those who don’t drink will appreciate the hotel’s tea ritual, an offering of rare, loose-leaf blends and paired pastries, served with Japanese-style reverence from October till March.

Last orders

The bar and bistro open from noon till midnight daily, with lunch served from 12.30pm to 2.30pm and dinner from 7pm to 10.30pm.

Room service

The decadence in style extends to guest wants too — you can dine in bed round-the-clock.

Location

Photos Hotel Metropole Venezia location
Address
Hotel Metropole Venezia
Riva degli Schiavoni 4149
Venezia
30122
Italy

Hotel Metropole Venezia has a prime, lagoon-facing position in the very central Castello sestieri (district), with a view of San Giorgio Maggiore island, within walking distance of both Piazza San Marco and the Giardini della Biennale.

Planes

Venice’s network of historic alleyways can’t accommodate cars, so to arrive from Marco Polo Airport, you’ll need to take a taxi to the Port of Venice (around a 20-minute drive), then hop on the Alilaguna Water Bus to the San Marco-San Zaccaria stop (around a 25-minute journey), which is just a few steps from Metropole. Hotel staff can help to arrange a private, taxi-boat transfer at a charge of €295 each way.

Trains

Santa Lucia Station is where trains from major Italian cities arrive direct. From there you’ll still need to hop on the water bus to reach the hotel.

Automobiles

Venice wouldn’t be quite as romantic if it weren’t for its traghetti (communal ferries) and gondolas (even the rubbish here is collected by boat), and there’s no way to navigate the bridges and the island’s maze of calles by car, so go by foot or glide along the canals. Those road-tripping can park up in Piazzale Roma (for a charge).

Other

For a more luxurious arrival, book a private water taxi to speed you over from airport to island, which takes a speedier 30 minutes. There are various companies and choices of vessel, but mahogany Riva boats are the iconic choice. The hotel has its own jetty.

Worth getting out of bed for

Hotel Metropole Venezia has held a privileged position, facing the lagoon and San Giorgio Maggiore island, since 1500, when the building first appeared on maps. Piazza San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale are a 10-minute walk west and the Giardini della Biennale is a 10-minute walk east. First, peer into neighbouring Chiesa della Pietà to spy its Tiepolo ceiling frescoes, then strike out on foot for a culturally rich day spent musing over Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana’s contemporary collections; crossing the Rialto Bridge; and admiring Peggy Guggenheim’s amassed artworks and the masterpieces of the Gallerie dell’ Accademia.

If the weather holds up, hop on a 15-minute water taxi to Lido di Venezia, where there’s a sandy beach. Or, if the hotel’s interiors have caught your imagination, head north to discover Venice’s craft scene — book a private tour at Luigi Bevilacqua’s traditional weaving mill; jaunt over to Murano for glass and Burano for handmade lace. Or turn south to Giudecca for a tour of the Fortuny fabric showroom. And if staring at San Giorgio Maggiore island from the hotel intrigues you, hop over to climb its campanile (bell-tower), roam its basilica and browse the modern paintings of the Giorgio Cini Foundation. 

Local restaurants

Venice’s seafood scene is strong thanks to the biodiversity of its lagoon and giving Adriatic waters. Hostaria da Franz’s chef has netfuls of talent in turning the spoils into elegant dishes, such as spaghetti with garum-spiced sardines and smoked butter. You’ll notice passive-aggressive signs on restaurant menus stating that they do not serve pizza (yes, it’s from Naples, we know), but Trattoria Dai Tosi’s pies are the tasty exception. And Alle Testiere is loved by chefs — a bacaro with just a handful of tables and not always a menu: what you eat is determined by what’s fresh in the Rialto Market.

Local cafés

Practise your eating-a-cream-cake-while-standing skills, because Pasticceria Marchini Time on Campo San Luca doesn’t have seats, but does have a counter full of ‘oh dear God’ cakes. For a more potent espresso hit than Sabrina Carpenter’s, head to Caffè La Serra (1254 Via Giuseppe Garibaldi), close to the Giardini della Biennale. It’s set in a 19th-century greenhouse, also has a flower shop and hosts educational botanical workshops.

Local bars

Hotel Metropole is as classico as they come, so experience Venice’s modern side at its newer and largely natural wine bars. Ozio is a stylish spot in the Campo Santa Maria Formosa, which is dedicated to supporting sustainable agriculture and introducing drinkers to funkier wines. They serve top cicchetti bites, too. Vino Vero is further north in Cannaregio, but this Portuguese transplant is worth the trip; the owners prefer slow enjoyment over ‘ombra Veneta’ (the Venetian tradition of a quick, small glass of wine) and have a young, passionate team.

Reviews

Photos Hotel Metropole Venezia reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this doorstopper-saga of hotel in Venice's Castello sestiere and unpacked their Murano glassware and shiny, new, bespoke leather shoes, a full account of their flight-of-fantasy break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Hotel Metropole Venezia… 

Hotel Metropole Venezia is as multifaceted as its unsubtle decor. The floating city isn’t lacking in grand houses with a history, but this has had quite the few centuries, with Vivaldi teaching music lessons here, Thomas Mann and Marcel Proust taking residence when it became a hotel in the 1800s, serving as a hospital in World War II and, on reopening, welcoming the likes of Lou Reed and Lenny Kravitz for guests.

The Beggiato family (who’ve run it since 1968) are proud curators of the hotel’s past and other histories, with an antiques collection spanning thousands of curios, from a dedicated floor of decorative fans to beaded clutches, frog statues, mirrors, armour… and enough crucifixes to forever ward off vampires. Speaking of effective weaponry — the hotel’s gold-leaf-lined spa, citrus garden and bespoke black-pepper scent have the power to soothe when you're overcome by the opulence. 

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Price per night from $335.53

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