DISCOVER ITALIA!

VeniceLagoon

If you’re planning a holiday in Venice, consider staying on the water rather than finding a hotel on dry land. As Jane Gifforddiscovers, it offers the opportunity to see much of this magical city.

© Jane Gifford

Photography

When it came to planning my first trip to Venice, I decided that the best way to make the most of my stay would be to view it from a perspective I anticipated would enable me to see as much as of the city as possible: from the very waters that make the place unique. Waterfront accommodation is particularly expensive in a city that’s not overburdened with low-budget hotels anyway, so I determined that the views and intimate proximity afforded by a ‘hotel boat’ would more than return on equivalent expenditure in a regular hotel. After doing some research, I opted to book a cruise aboard the MS Michelangelo, a purpose-built boat that accommodates up to 148 passengers and blends unobtrusively with the myriad other vessels plying the city’s waterways. As well as every facility you’d expect of a well-equipped hotel, you get a priceless added bonus when you stay on a floating hotel:a continually changing cityscape that you’ll never get from a stationary window. From what I had read in various tour guides, I had expected Venice to be shrouded in fog given the time of year I was visiting, but as my plane crossed the Dolomites the sky was cloudless. Range upon range of snow-capped mountains bathed in afternoon sun fell away abruptly to the flat coastal plain. As the Lagoon and Venice came into view, I was stuck by how the small the city is – and by just how much extraordinary architecture is packed into what is only a few tiny islands. ®

52 ITALIA! June 2006