Venice might be known for its ravishing waterside hotels – you’ll find them along with the city’s best guesthouses, private villas and estates in the LUXE Venice Guide – but if you’re more about intimate, after-dark debauchery, have we got the boutique hotel for you.
Palazzo Barbarigo
The dark and smouldering sex-on-a-stick sweetie that is the Palazzo Barbarigo has for years been wowing global romp n’ romancers with just 18 chambers bedecked in seductive black, gold, and blood-red velvets, four-poster beds, huge mirrors, feather and fringe details all around, plus floor-to-ceiling views over the Grand Canal or the San Polo river (psst… if you can, ask for one of the two corner suites, boasting a fabulous aspect on both!).
It’s clear the focus here isn’t on food, without an on-site restaurant, but the hotel’s Rialto location means there’s plenty of top-notch dining options to be found nearby (see below), before you return to take sophisty nightcaps at Barbarigo’s sultry bar over the water.
Just don’t forget to pack your slinkiest teddy…
Palazzo Barbarigo, Calle del Scaleter, 2765, 30125 Venezia VE, Italy +39 041 740 172, palazzobarbarigo.it
When you manage to drag yourself from your room, here are a few wine n’ dine options but an oar’s toss from Barbarigo:
Acqua Pazzo
Whisk your palate southwards to the sunny Amalfi Coast at this alfresco showstopper on Campo Sant’Angelo. Here you’ll feast on sharing-size plates of bruschetta, lobster, mozzarella, pizza alla Napoli and dangerously moreish limoncello shots. veniceacquapazza.com
Antiche Carampane
In-the-know epicures love that this simple timber trattoria is hard to find and that there’s ‘no pizza, no menù turistico’, just plenty of flip-fresh aquatic life and superb wine selection. No meat. At all. antichecarampane.com
Margaret Duchamp
Youthful bacchanalian joy fills this lively, modern sipster that spills into the comely square until late. Campo Santa Margherita 3019
Updated November 2018.
Hero image: Palazzo Barbarigo
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