Venice, Italy

Palazzo Cristo

Price per night from$915.96

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 (EUR850.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Contemporary countess

Setting

A square of marvels

Palazzo Cristo overlooks a 13th-century basilica and one of Venice’s most charming squares – but that’s just the frame for the beauty found inside. Standing since the 15th century, the palazzo had seen better days until it was spotted by Paris-based designers Anna Covre and Frederic Tubau, who poured their efforts into making it fit for a doge in the digital age. Soaring ceilings and original beams still frame the furnishings below, but creaky floorboards and patchy sofas have been ousted by world-class contemporary design. Furniture is carved from rare woods and upholstered with lustrous velvet; bathrooms are clad in milky Carrara marble and pale travertine; wall-mounted mirrors catch the light pouring through tall, arched windows. Not a single detail was overlooked – including the decision to settle for just three self-catered suites, making the palazzo a sumptuous sanctuary from the crowds.

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A bottle of prosecco

Facilities

Photos Palazzo Cristo facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Three suites.

Check–Out

10.30am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 4pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £728.35 (€850). Palazzo Cristo is unable to accept payment by credit card.

More details

Rates exclude breakfast, but include tourist tax and a cocktail at nearby Amo restaurant.

Also

Just across the square is the Basilica Santi Giovanni e Paolo, one of the largest and most important churches in the city. Built in the Italian Gothic style, the basilica dates as far back as the 1430s, and has been the burial site for 25 doges of Venice.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: hidden TV with Netflix; fully-equipped kitchenette with a fridge, oven, microwave, toaster, washing machine and dryer by either Miele or Smeg; Nespresso coffee machine; tea and a kettle; underfloor heating; David Mallett bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Each of the three suites was lavished with attention during the renovation process, ensuring the hotel made the most of the palazzo’s grand spaces. We’re particularly taken with Suite 3, which offers serious legroom for a one-bedroom apartment, and has some of the best views over the Campo Santi Giovanni and the canal.

Packing tips

If you’re planning on cooking up a storm in your kitchen, there’s no need to bring any recipes with you – you’ll find a book of Venetian dishes in the suite.

Also

The palazzo’s historic layout and lack of adapted rooms make it unsuitable for wheelchair users.

Pet‐friendly

Pets stay free. See more pet-friendly hotels in Venice.

Children

Over-12s are welcome, but the hotel isn’t particularly geared towards children.

Food and Drink

Photos Palazzo Cristo food and drink

Hotel restaurant

There's no food served at the hotel but, thankfully, Venice is chock full of excellent restaurants (including world-class bakery Rosa Salva, just outside your front door) – whether you’re in the mood for world-class fine dining or a cosy, family-style trattoria, the city won’t disappoint.

Hotel bar

There’s no bar at the hotel, but each suite has a minibar stocked with water, juices and prosecco.

Location

Photos Palazzo Cristo location
Address
Palazzo Cristo
Campo S.S. Giovanni e Paolo, Castello 6805A
Venice
30122
Italy

Palazzo Cristo occupies a 16th-century building in the Campo Santi Giovanni, a canalside square with a beautiful Gothic basilica.

Planes

The closest airport is Venice Marco Polo, 8km from the palazzo. The hotel can arrange a water taxi for up to five people for €120 each way or a private door-to-door transfer for €250 each way, also for up to five people. With the latter, you'll be met and helped with your luggage, then driven to the docks, where you'll board a private water limousine bound for the hotel.

Trains

Trains arrive at Venice Santa Lucia from across Italy, including Milan, Rome and Florence. If you’re coming from London, there’s no finer way to travel than on the opulent Venice Simplon Orient-Express, which leaves from London Victoria and journeys through the night, arriving at Venice Santa Lucia the following afternoon.

Automobiles

Except for the Lido (where the film festival is held), Venice is famously car free, so you’ll be leaving your wheels at home for this one.

Other

Vaporettos (water buses) and private water taxis are the way to get between the islands.

Worth getting out of bed for

Palazzo Cristo no longer has a team of servants to bathe and dress you in the morning, but it more than makes up for it with its beautiful design – the decadent interiors have been known to make guests linger longer than they’d planned in the mornings, whether for a second espresso or a soak in the deep bath tubs. The vast windows overlook one of the finest squares in the city and bathe the suites in light, making them perfect for a spot of reading – if you haven’t brought your own material, peruse the book on Venetian cooking that’s in the suite.

Burano, Venice’s charming isle of lace, is a choreographed riot of colour. The buildings there are painted hot pink, lime green and electric blue – a stark contrast to the more earthy tones seen around most of the city. Famous around the world for its hand-blown glass, Murano is less colourful, but still worth a visit if you’re interested in the intricacies of traditional glass making. The hotel can arrange a tour of both islands on a private water limousine with an expert guide – you’ll have prosecco and Venetian tapas onboard, and a demonstration of the respective craft on each island. Though most famous for its classical character, Venice is home to one of Italy's most important modern art galleries, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, a veritable treasure trove of early 20th century art – cubism, surrealism and abstract expressionism in particular. If you’re looking to tick off iconic sights like St Mark’s Basilica and the Doge Palace, it’s well worth booking a guide who can get you priority access tickets – the queues can be alarmingly long in peak season, cutting into your day’s exploring. On that note, the Rialto Bridge is a must-see for Venice first timers. It’s thronged with tourists throughout the day, however, so our advice would be to go at night – the later the better, in fact.

Local restaurants

Right next door to the hotel is Rosa Salva, one of the oldest pasticceria in the city, which does a roaring trade in Venetian pastries, coffee and gelato, best enjoyed on the terrace in the morning sun. For authentic cicchetti (small plates) and well priced wine, try Osteria al Ponte, a local hangout just across the bridge from the hotel. It’s very much a hole in the wall sort of place, so most people take their food and sit on the steps outside. For Venetian fine-dining, try Amo, which has taken over the ground floor of the impressive T Fondaco dei Tedeschi department store, which was once the headquarters for German merchants trading in the city. The menus make liberal use of the nearby Rialto market, using the produce in dishes like sea bass carpaccio, vegetable tartare with black rice focaccia, and three types of gourmet pizza – baked, steamed and fried. Another worthy contender is Quadri, the only restaurant in the Piazza San Marco. The dining room was sensitively restored by Philippe Starck and a team of artisans in 2018, creating the perfect backdrop for the food, best described as a modern expression of classic Venetian cuisine.

Local bars

In Venice, the best places for a drink are usually the unassuming back-alley bars, where residents go for sundowners. That said, Amo does a fine spritz or peach bellini.

Reviews

Photos Palazzo Cristo reviews
Zing Tsjeng

Anonymous review

By Zing Tsjeng, Journalist, podcaster, author

What’s left to say about Venice? The city of canals has beguiled everyone from Lord Byron to Ernest Hemingway; its narrow streets and bridges have launched a thousand swooning love affairs and wedding proposals.

It’s hard to get out from under the weight of centuries of myth-making to do something new, but Palazzo Cristo manages it… [READ THE FULL REVIEW

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Price per night from $915.96