Facing the Venetian lagoon along the Riva dei Sette Martiri, a fifteenth-century pilgrim hospice built to shelter crusaders departing for the Holy Land now serves as Ca' di Dio, a hotel whose layered history carries more weight than almost any comparable property in the city. The building, whose stepped Istrian stone cornice is visible from the water, was sensitively converted by Patricia Urquiola — one of the few designers with both the confidence and the restraint to work against Venice's tendency toward Gothic excess. Her 65-room scheme, completed in 2021, treats the palazzo as a collaborator rather than a backdrop. The interiors move between two registers: a warm midcentury Italian sensibility in the guestrooms, where terrazzo floors, teal chenille sofas, burgundy velvet ottomans, and textured green wallcovering suggest a Venetian apartment assembled over decades rather than designed in a single pass, and a more polished public atmosphere in the bar, where fluted black Nero Marquina marble wraps the counter beneath walnut paneling and brass-trimmed shelving. Convex mirrors and amber Murano glass wall sconces carry the craft tradition of the city without resorting to pastiche. From the waterfront terrace — the building's single greatest asset — the campanile of San Marco sits directly in the sightline across the basin, the kind of view that no amount of interior design can manufacture and that Urquiola, to her credit, left entirely unframed.

No travel notes provided yet.

Ca’ di Dio è un’esperienza da vivere. I nostri ospiti potranno toccare con mano il fascino di questa dimora senza tempo. Il luminoso travertino nelle sale comuni, gli affreschi perfettamente conservati, i dettagli in vetro di Murano e la pietra d’Istria che avvolge le architetture non sono semplici particolari, ma vere e proprie emozioni.