Skylines 03|14

DESTINATIONS
VENEDIG
Independence
Experience
Partnership
INFO
Aman Canal Grande Venice
Palazzo Papadopoli, Calle Tiepolo 1364,
Sestiere San Polo
amanresorts.com
Italienische Zentrale für Tourismus
enit.at
Austrian Airlines fliegt dreimal täglich
von Wien nach Venedig.
Austrian Airlines flies from Vienna to
Venice three times a day.
30 | skylines 03/2014
Prachtvoll: Tiepolo Suite (oben) und Yellow Ding Room (links). Magnificent: Tiepolo Suite (above) and Yellow Ding Room (left).
lässt den Tag in der Bar bei einem der Signature
Cocktails des Hotels ausklingen, etwa dem
Thai Chee (Wodka, Litschi-Likör, Ginger Ale,
Ingwer und ein wenig Lime Juice).
Klar, dass das auch seinen Preis hat. So
kostet die Nacht von 1.000 Euro aufwärts. Mag
schon sein, dass das nicht jedermanns Sache
ist. Restaurants und Bar sind aber auch
Nicht-Hotelgästen zugänglich. Was man sich
nicht entgehen lassen sollte.
///
There’s no other way to sleep. Or dream. Beneath a
deep blue sky, with small, chubby-faced cherubim
chasing away fluffy rain clouds, helping a bird climb
upwards, extending their bottoms in our direction. We
are lying beneath a ceiling fresco painted by famed
artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo in the eighteenth
century. No, the Aman Canal Grande Hotel in Venice
is not just any old luxury hotel. It is quite possibly –
and you will rapidly be convinced of this – the most
beautiful hotel in Europe.
A few years ago, an incredible twist of fate
brought Venice’s blue-blooded Gonzaga family
together with Indonesian hotelier Adrian Zecha,
founder of the unbelievably stylish group Aman
Resorts. The former had a palazzo on the Grand
Canal, the Palazzo Papadopoli, just one of eight
palazzi monumentali, as upper-class family seats are
referred to in these parts, which had become too
much for the family to maintain. And the latter was
looking to open a hotel in the city unlike anything
the world had ever seen. An agreement was rapidly
reached, the Gonzagas retained ownership of the
palazzo and an apartment on the top floor, and
Zecha redesigned the four other floors and rooftop
terrace as the Aman Canal Grande Venice, with its 24
marvellous suites.
The Aman Canal Grande is a very unusual hotel
indeed. It has been carefully restored, with furniture
from the workshop of Italian firm B&B, generously
laid-out rooms, several salons, restaurants (Thai,
Italian, and in the summer, Japanese out in the
garden), as well as a library, roof terrace and garden.
This is a place where Asian understatement meets
Venetian opulence.
You quickly get used to life at the hotel – very
quickly, in fact, so that however hard Venice may try
to lure you away, you don’t actually want to leave
the palazzo at all. So you do the rounds, taking
breakfast in the ballroom, where the balcony offers a
breathtaking view onto the Grand Canal, spending a
few quiet minutes and hours reading in the lovely
library, meeting in one of the salons, dining in one of
the restaurants, and finally bringing the day to a
close at the bar, with one of the hotel’s signature
cocktails, like the Thai Chee (vodka, lychee liqueur,
ginger ale, ginger and a dash of lime juice).
Obviously all this doesn’t come cheap. Prices start
at around 1,000 euros a night. It may not be to
everyone’s taste. The restaurants and bar are also
accessible to non-hotel guests, however, which is
definitely something that shouldn’t be missed. q
FOTOS: AMANRESORTS
www.asoluto.com, Foto: www.photos.com
To Grow …
and to Protect.
Risiko kennen –
entschlossen handeln.
European American Investment Bank AG
Wallnerstrasse 4, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +431512 38 80 0, Fax: +431512 38 80 888
office@eurambank.com, www.eurambank.com