17 Best Hotels in Venice

"The crush of over-tourism has risked muting the magic of La Serenissima, but the city’s hotels, many of them palaces and villas during the republic’s glory days, remain a bastion of Venetian romance. At the graceful Aman Venice, in the quieter San Polo district, there is slightly more reserve. With its Murano chandeliers and stellar rabbit cappelletti served in a side garden, the hotel mixes the elegantly spare aesthetic of this revered Asian brand with the cultured taste of the Italian count and princess who own the property. In a city awash with much-loved legends—the Cipriani, the Danieli, the Gritti Palace—it takes something special for a newcomer to turn heads. But Aman, which splashed down here in 2013, as ever, had a trump card: Palazzo Papadopoli. This 16th-century confection is right on the Grand Canal just past the Rialto Bridge—which guests whizz under in the hotel’s glossy Riva to arrive at the palazzo’s jetty flanked by cerulean bricole. The 24 bedrooms have been slotted into many of the palazzo’s original spaces, so they are all unique. But the opulence does not compete with Jean-Michel Gathy’s minimalist B&B Italia furniture." - Anne Hanley