Venice, Italy

Venissa

Rates per night from$111.63

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 (EUR98.18), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Venissa Photos

Style

Pearl of the lagoon

Setting

Venerated vineyard

Explore

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Venissa has had a grape start in life: it’s owned by a famous family of Veneto winemakers and set within a historic walled vineyard on Mazzorbo Island. Oenophiles will be delighted to hear that tenacious vines still flourish here today; this is one of the only places in the world where you can try the rare and ancient dorona di Venezia grape variety, rescued from oblivion by the team behind the hotel. There’s more to Venissa than liquid lures, though: five relaxed rooms that overlook the lagoon or survey the vineyard, peaceful gardens and a Michelin-starred restaurant run by a star-quality culinary collective. Venice is just a 50-minute boat trip away, but you won’t hear a peep (let alone a sigh) from the city at this tranquil hideaway.

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A bottle of prosecco

Facilities

Photos Venissa facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Five, including two suites.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm (latest check-in, 8pm; reception closes at 9pm).

Rates

Double rooms from $111.63 (€98), excluding tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €3.20 per person per night on check-out.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast (including Continental options and a glass of prosecco).

Also

Philippe Starck has several houses on nearby Burano, all signposted by a distinctive light on their exterior wall...

Hotel closed

Venissa shuts its doors from 27 November till 31 December.

At the hotel

Vineyard, vegetable gardens, osteria, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, WiFi, desk, air-conditioning, free bottled water, minibar.

Our favourite rooms

Opt for a top-floor, lagoon-spying Suite.

Packing tips

Swap your hand luggage for a cabin case (soon to be filled with Venissa’s wine).

Also

The boat trip to the hotel isn’t ideal for wheelchair-users, but Venissa’s communal areas and formal restaurant are wheelchair-accessible. Extra beds for over-twos are €50 a night; baby cots for little ones two-and-under are €30 a night, on request.

Children

Little Smiths aged between two and 10 can come, but it’s best suited to grown-ups. The osteria has highchairs and baby-changing facilities, and the chef at the restaurant will cook up children's dishes.

Food and Drink

Photos Venissa food and drink

Top Table

There are only 10 to pick from in the diminutive dining room, so there’s not much in it. If the weather’s clement, nab a table outside the osteria.

Dress Code

Off-duty Venetian: relaxed shirt or sundress with leather flats, a spritz of cologne and a dash of va-va-voom.

Hotel restaurant

Il Ristorante has kept a tight grip on the Michelin star that shone upon it in 2012. The kitchen is run by the award-winning chef, Francesco Brutto; named Italy's best young chef in 2016 and 2017 and a culinary collective that includes of seafood-fanatics, herb-fiends and a Willy Wonka-style experimentalist to cook up delicious dishes. The small restaurant feels very intimate, thanks to its open kitchen: pretend you’re eating at a wealthy friend’s house (one with fragrant fresh ingredients and resident chefs passionately discussing their creations in the background, natch). There’s also the more relaxed Osteria Contemporanea, which serves traditional Italian dishes. Wherever you eat, order a bottle or two of wine starring the island’s dorona di Venezia grapes.

Last orders

The osteria serves breakfast until 10am, lunch til 4pm (although small snacks are available all afternoon) and dinner til 11pm. At Il Ristorante, lunch is served until 2pm, dinner until 9pm.

Room service

None, but you can request coffees, apéritifs and other drinks in the osteria if you’re thirsty.

Location

Photos Venissa location
Address
Venissa
Fondamenta S. Caterina, 3
Venezia
30142
Italy

Planes

Fly into Venice Marco Polo international airport, 10 kilometres from the hotel (an hour’s drive). You’ll need to take a boat to the island of Burano: hotel transfers in a private water taxi cost from €160 for two people; the ride takes 50 minutes. Alternatively, the vaporetto will whoosh you across for €20 a person, but this takes an hour and a half.

Trains

Venezia Santa Lucia connects to Milan, Rome, Florence, Munich and Paris, with services run by Trenitalia, Italo and the Orient Express. From the station, you’ll need to hop in a water taxi or request a hotel transfer by boat.

Automobiles

Burano is a car-free island, so leave your wheels behind. The hotel suggests dropping your wheels off at its private car park, close to the airport at Ca’ Noghera. Parking is free; you can catch a 20-minute hotel transfer from here to Mazzorbo (from €90 for eight people). Alternatively, park at Treporti/Cavallino and catch the vaporetto (a boat leaves every 20 minutes); the vaporetto isn’t expensive, but the parking is.

Worth getting out of bed for

Cross the bridge to neighbouring Burano, where you can admire colourful architecture – imagine an Italian take on Notting Hill’s petal-hued townhouses – and pick up ornate lace from the local shops. Explore Torcello island and admire its historic cattedrale, which dates back to Byzantine times. The hotel can organise a range of agritourism-type activities for groups of six or more: guided tours of the vineyard, ending with a wine tasting; a tour of the vegetable garden and a herb-based cocktail-making class; a garden tour and a lesson in marinades; a four-hour bragozzo boat trip with a lagoonside picnic; a sunset bragozzo trip with prosecco and cicchetti (you can add a professional photographer to the mix for the sake of posterity). Hop on a boat to Venice and explore the City of Sighs. If you’re here in summer, ask staff to point you in the direction of the island’s hidden lagoon…

Local restaurants

Nearby Burano has some excellent restaurants; they’re just a short walk away, so you won’t have to stagger far or brave a boat trip afterwards. Feast on prawns, clams, mussels and more in characterful splendour at La Locanda del Gatto Nero on Via della Palmarola, which also boasts a charming owner. Follow in the sparkly footsteps of Bowie, Robert de Niro, Keith Richards and co. at Trattoria da Romano on Via Baldassarre Galuppi, where you can expect seafood as superb the service. If you like risotto, head to Via San Mauro and pay Riva Rosa Ristorante a visit: their totally toothsome version is cooked to perfection in a seafood stock.

Reviews

Photos Venissa 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 gourmet hotel in Italy and unpacked their biscotti and Burano lace, a full account of their island break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Venissa on Mazzorbo Island…

We’ve never felt more like successful pearl hunters than we do now, having scoured the Northern Venetian Lagoon and returned with a lustrous new Italian gem. Venissa’s considerable lures include an ancient tradition of winemaking (try wines made from the on-site vineyard’s famous dorona di Venezia grape while you’re here), a Michelin-starred restaurant that champions fish from the lagoon and wine from the vines, and five relaxed rooms styled with exposed beams, neutral hues and lake or grape views. The hotel is hidden away within a walled vineyard on the tranquil island of Mazzorbo, connected to pretty, mellow Burano by bridge and a 50-minute boat ride from the City of Sighs. You’ll be the ones sighing – with contentment, if not ecstasy – after a dazzling meal in the lagoon-spying restaurant, a watery tour on a bragozzo boat and a bottle or two of that local nectar.

The Guestbook

Whenever you book a stay at a Smith hotel or villa, we’ll invite you to review it when you get back. Read what other Smith members had to say in Venissa’s Guestbook below.

We loved

We loved the friendly staff who really took care of us. Loads of great recommendations for things to do in the area and places to eat. The room was great - it was spacious and comfortable. The island is friendly and clean, it's definitely worth walking around at night when all the tourists have gone. Gatto Nero is a great place for a bite to eat – the hotel can book it. Both their Osteria and Michelin star restaurant are superb. Definitely deserve their star, pushing two compared to many places we have eaten. Wines pairing was great – not just your average selection, really creative.

Don’t expect

Don't expect a wild party – this place is relaxed and very chilled. We visited off season so perhaps it's more lively in the summer. We were the only ones eating in their Osteria on a Thursday night. A little bar area or somewhere relaxed to have a nice glass of wine would be nice, as would a glass on arrival given their wine history.

Rating

Stayed on 18 Oct 2018

We loved

Very quiet and peaceful – there are few tourists in Mazzorbo. Lovely service. The Michelin-starred restaurant and also lovely. Osteria, where breakfast is served. Although Burano, a short stroll away, is very busy during the day with tourists. They all leave in evening, however, so if visiting Venice you basically miss the hordes! Lovely grounds where a lot of the fresh produce is grown and of course the Vinyard. Our top floor suite overlooking canal was lovely and spacious and had a great bed too. The bar was very reasonably priced: €4 for lovely spritzers.

Don’t expect

Nightlife or anything lively

Rating

Stayed on 18 May 2018

We loved

The Michelin star restaurant on site was fantastic. The location is lovely.

Rating

Stayed on 9 Apr 2018

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