Chic Cocktails And Double Glazing: How Venice’s Oldest Hotel Is Keeping Up With The Times

To arrive at Baglioni Hotel Luna, you just need to ask for directions to St Mark’s Square – the hotel lies directly beside Venice’s famed piazza. Alternatively, you can arrive by sleek, black gondola right outside the main entrance. The hotel sits at the end of a narrow canal that leads out into the sparkling lagoon. This has been the mode of arrival favored by the hotel’s illustrious guests over the decades.

What is the oldest hotel in Venice?

Baglioni Hotel Luna is said to be the oldest hotel in Venice. Nearly 1,000 years ago, it began life as a church and monastery. Although almost none of the architecture survives from this period – though skeletons were discovered underground during construction work for the new restaurant – the moniker ‘Luna’ dates from around this time.

As early as the 12th century, the structure acted as lodgings for the Knights Templar. From here, the Christian soldiers would set off on crusades to recover the Holy Land from Muslim control.

These soldiers earned the nickname ‘Cavalieri della Luna’ – Knights of the Moon – referring to the crescent-shaped symbol of their Islamic enemies. By 1574, the property was also known as the Locanda della Luna.

A luxury hotel by St Mark’s Square

Today, the five-star hotel is an opulent palazzo of marble-clad interiors and full-ceiling frescoes. After closing for renovations, the structure reopened this March ready to welcome guests with exciting new features.

The gilded, damask-lined rooms are now equipped with subtly installed double glazing, a feature now necessary since tourists have begun to trundle wheel-along suitcases down quiet side streets at all hours.

Aside from practical improvements, the hotel has two major new features. It now offers guests a spa with an extensive menu of treatments. The hotel deemed it important as guests have sometimes asked for the swimming pool, which is impossible to install in a historic building in Venice. The spa equipped with a Turkish bath and relaxation area was the best alternative.

A Michelin-starred chef and contemporary Venetian cuisine

The hotel is also now home to the new fine-dining Canova restaurant headed by Michelin-starred chef Claudio Sadler. In a softly lit room, diners can watch Sadler and his team through a long glass window as they whip up exquisite dishes.

Guests looking to try some local cuisine should opt for the Creative Venetian tasting menu. Seven impeccably presented plates revisit some classic Venetian dishes. The sarde in saor, which combines sardines with a sweet and sour onion sauce, is plated like an Art Deco masterpiece while the tiramisù is encased in a coffee bean-shaped chocolate shell which melts as the waitress pours over a hot chocolate sauce.

In the newly refurbished lobby, pre or post-dinner cocktails can be sipped at an oval bar beneath a decadent Murano glass chandelier.

A breakfast room adorned with frescoes

The most spectacular room, however, awaits guests the next morning. Breakfast is served in a vast space that was once the palazzo’s ballroom. Circular tables and the buffet bar lie beneath a swirling, gilded ceiling of 18th-century frescoes by students of the Venetian master Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Around the walls, elegantly carved furniture sits between ornate mirrors and heavy brocade curtains and the floor is historic Venetian terrazzo. It’s hard not to feel like nobility in this grand interior, sat beneath scenes of gods and lovers.

In Venice, space comes at a premium, so it’s rare to experience rooms like this other than in museums or historic houses. Baglioni Hotel Luna also has another special space, although you have to shell out a bit more to enjoy it.

The hotel’s prime room is the San Giorgio Terrace Suite. It’s equipped with a kitchenette, dining and living area, and two bedrooms. But the highlight is the 100-meter square terrace with a breathtaking view over the glittering lagoon to the luminous white church of San Giorgio, designed in the 16th century by Andrea Palladio.