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Gritti Palace

by Laura

I loved the Gritti Palace and look forward to returning there one day to see the recent renovations. Our room overlooking the Grand Canal was spectacular.

Maria's reply: I have received so many messages telling me how wonderful the Gritti Palace Hotel is so it seems it must really be something special indeed.

The views from the hotel are amongst the loveliest in all of Venice I believe and from many of the rooms you get to look out over Grand Canal (as you mentioned) and over on the other side of the canal is the Santa Maria delle Salute church - pictured on this page.

The Santa Maria delle Salute is so incredibly lovely - one of the loveliest churches in all Italy and especially at night, when it is all illuminated, it is truly unforgettable. I can only imagine what a pleasure it must be to look out on it from your room.

Lastly the Gritti is said to have one of the best restaurants in Venice - the Club del Doge. It is rather expensive though and I have never eaten there myself - I tend to prefer the more simple family run type restaurants where all the family gets involved, there is lots of laughter and chatter and portions are enormous- these are some of my favorites.

Very fancy Michelin type restaurants always leave me feeling that the food is sliced and diced until you hardly see it, almost as if it is prepared by a surgeon and normally the atmosphere seems about as lively as a doctors waiting room too. Having said that the Club del Doge may be different and if you love risotto you'll love the Club del Doge which is said to be the best restaurant for Risotto anywhere east of Milan.

Now that I've said how marvelous the hotel seems to be and how so many people have told me the same thing you might be wondering why I don't feature it? It's simple really; the only reason I haven't included it on the website yet is that I only feature hotels that I know personally and I haven't yet stayed at or even visited the Gritti Palace Hotel. Maybe this summer if I can convince my hubby and he can save up enough money!