Ca Maria Adele is without a doubt one of the world's most romantic boutique hotels. Set in a 16th-century palazzo at the tip of Dorsoduro, just beside the Salute basilica, the hotel was opened in 2004 by brothers Alessio and Nicola Campa. Heirs to a Murano glass-making dynasty (their grandfather built the largest chandelier in the world), they named the hotel after their grandmothers and designed every inch themselves. The 12 rooms are draped in Venetian velvet and gold leaf, with plenty of Moorish carvings and Asian antiques in a nod to the city's old trading routes. It's adults-only, deeply intimate and fabulously, outrageously theatrical.
Step off your water taxi onto a private canal-side dock and into a cocoon of dark velvet, gold marble and African teak. The communal spaces, all designed entirely by the Campa brothers, are theatrical and wild - think ponyskin sofas, brocade walls and Buddhist statues lining the corridors. Breakfast and afternoon tea are served on the rooftop terrace, eye-level with the cherubs of the Salute, or in a salon beneath a vast Murano chandelier. There's no restaurant, but the honesty bar is a welcome addition in the evening.
There are 12 rooms located in the main palazzo and three nearby satellite apartments, each revealing one-of-a-kind interiors. The five Concept Rooms steal the show, from the Sala del Doge dressed in floor-to-ceiling scarlet velvet to the dusky walls and black chandeliers of Sala Noire and Moorish blue hues of Sala dei Mori. The Deluxe rooms are a little more pared-back, but all have King-size beds, Italian linens, Murano chandeliers and bathrooms lined in local stone. Most rooms overlook the canal, the basilica or both.
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is just three minutes' walk away and Punta della Dogana, with François Pinault's contemporary art collection, is just a little further. The Zattere promenade winds along the Giudecca Canal, perfect for a sunset stroll past the gelaterias and iconic bacari, while San Marco is a single vaporetto stop away. Beyond that, the staff at Ca Maria Adele are masters at booking restaurants (essential — the good ones go fast), arranging private water taxis and canal tours, and even organising Murano glass-making visits.
The bespoke house fragrance, a custom blend the Campa brothers commissioned to evoke the lagoon's flowers, that drifts through every corridor.
Every November, Venice builds a temporary pontoon bridge across the Grand Canal for the beloved Festa della Salute, that lands at the basilica next door - and the hotel has exclusive, front-row seats.
Ca Maria Adele is an unapologetically grown-up bolthole and children under 16 can't stay.
A slowly sinking city where gondolas glide along a labyrinth of enchanting canals.
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