TK

• Amenities: swimming pool, airport shuttle, 2 on-site restaurants, bar, spa
• Address: 2033 Calle Larga XXII Marzo, San Marco, Venice 30124, Italy

In 2019, the Experimental Group—the French team behind the beloved Grand Pigalle Hotel and Hotel des Grands Boulevards in Paris—debuted Il Palazzo Experimental. And despite the brand’s signature offbeat decor, it couldn’t fit more seamlessly if it tried. That’s partly down to the thoughtful choice of location: Il Palazzo Experimental is housed in a 16th-century building on the waterside walkway of Zattere, one of Venice’s liveliest (well, by Venice standards, anyway) neighborhoods. A mere 10-minute walk to the Accademia, its outlook across to Giudecca provides a less familiar—yet equally striking—view of the city, while its buzzing, friendly atmosphere in the afternoons speaks to its location near a branch of the city’s Ca’ Foscari university.

Still, the standout feature here is the daring, delightful interior decor, which takes its cues from the building blocks of the city’s historic architecture—arched doorways, marble floors, and a color scheme that balances deep Venetian red with powder blues that echo the shimmering surface of the Adriatic beyond the lagoon—then lends them a firmly of-the-moment update, speaking to a range of Italian design influences spanning Gio Ponti to the 1980s Memphis movement. Top marks for the food here, too: Overseen by chefs Silvio Pezzana and Stefano ‘Toto’ Dell’Aringa, the menu riffs on plenty of Venetian classics while also touching on culinary traditions spanning the Adriatic coast, whether delicately flavored cicchetti—chickpea and parmesan fritters, say, or fried pizzette smothered in stracciatella, peas, and mint—to snack on at lunchtime, or a heartier meal at dinner of duck and ricotta-stuffed agnolotti or grilled seabass.