Venice

Venice is architecture shaped by water. Byzantine mosaics, Gothic palazzi, Renaissance churches and Baroque interiors rise directly from the lagoon, creating an urban landscape unlike anywhere else in the world. But Venice isn’t only a monument to the past. Carlo Scarpa created some of Italy’s most extraordinary 20th-century interventions here, while the Biennale continues to bring contemporary architecture and art into historic buildings, gardens and former industrial spaces across the city. Beyond San Marco, quieter neighbourhoods such as Dorsoduro, Cannaregio and Castello reveal workshops, hidden courtyards and a more lived-in Venice behind the spectacle.

Food and drink belong to the lagoon. Cicchetti eaten standing at a traditional bacaro, seafood from the Adriatic, risotto, sarde in saor and vegetables from islands such as Sant’Erasmo provide a culinary identity quite distinct from the rest of Italy. Historic cafés and grand hotel bars coexist with tiny wine bars, contemporary restaurants and increasingly thoughtful kitchens rediscovering the ingredients and traditions of the lagoon. Prosecco may be ubiquitous, but wines from the Veneto and nearby Friuli offer considerably more to explore—and few rituals improve on an aperitivo beside a canal as the day-trippers disappear.

Venice’s most interesting hotels inhabit buildings with centuries of stories already inside them. Gothic palazzi, former convents, merchants’ houses and Modernist interventions have been transformed into places to stay where frescoes, terrazzo, Murano glass and contemporary Italian design can exist side by side. At DNA Hotels, we curate the places where architecture, food, art and lagoon life come together—hotels that allow you to experience Venice not simply as one of the world’s most beautiful cities, but as a place that is still capable of surprising you.