A STUDY IN HOTELS: Hotel Il Palazzo Experimental

Venice is full of contradictions. It’s a city that swells with tourists and yet seduces with its quiet corners; where ancient architecture coexists with modern-day decadence.

There’s a particular light in Venice that seems to exist nowhere else. It bounces off the canals, diffuses through fog, hits the terracotta facades just so—and makes even the most jaded traveler feel like they’re inside a painting. It’s a city that teeters between the poetic and the absurd, drenched in layers of history, romance, and contradiction. And while Venice is hardly lacking in grand hotels—palatial stays with Murano chandeliers and brocade-lined walls—there are few places that capture its quieter, more contemporary rhythm quite like Hotel Il Palazzo Experimental.

We stayed during the opening of the Venice Biennale, when the city hums with creative energy. Artists, curators, gallerists, collectors, editors—they’re all here, darting between pavilions in the Giardini and Arsenale, hopping on water taxis en route to after-parties in 16th-century palazzos, sipping spritzes at Caffè Florian like it’s still 1923. It’s a magical time to visit, not only for the art, but for the way Venice momentarily transforms into a global cultural epicenter.

And while everyone flocks to the same legendary addresses—The Gritti, Cipriani, Danieli—Palazzo Experimental offers something entirely different: a low-key, design-forward escape in the artsy Dorsoduro neighborhood, with just the right amount of attitude.

Photo Courtesy of Hotel Il Palazzo Experimental