Airelles Palladio, Venezia – a Palladian retreat facing San Marco

Airelles Palladio, Venezia is the first hotel the French Airelles collection has opened outside its home country, and for the occasion it chose not the Grand Canal but Giudecca, the quieter island directly across the water from St Mark's Square, close enough to see the Basilica's domes but a few minutes away by boat from the crowds that gather beneath them. The 45-room property is built around a cluster of sixteenth-century structures, with rooms and suites divided between the Palladio building, designed by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, and the neighbouring Villa Frollo, while a smaller private villa serves families and larger groups travelling together. Four chefs new to the city run its kitchens, a Guerlain spa claims the title of the largest in Venice, and the whole enclave sits inside almost a hectare of private garden. The MICHELIN Guide recognises it with Three Keys, its highest distinction for a hotel stay.

01The house

Giudecca has been a refuge from the rest of Venice since long before Airelles arrived. From the fifteenth century onward, Venetian nobility retreated here, building palaces set among gardens, orchards and vineyards to escape the formality of the city across the water. The building that gives the hotel its name was designed by Andrea Palladio in 1561 and for centuries housed the Zitelle Institute, where young noblewomen were trained in lace-making so refined that a collar produced here was worn at the coronation of Louis XIV in Reims.

Alongside it stands the Conventino, once a shelter for noble widows and now the site of the hotel's private villa, and at the heart of the grounds the octagonal-domed church of Santa Maria della Presentazione, its frescoes carefully preserved through the restoration. Giudecca's association with artists runs deep too: Michelangelo is said to have taken brief refuge on the island, a story the hotel still likes to tell as proof of its pull on visionaries and dreamers over the centuries. Across the three historic buildings, nearly a hectare of garden surrounds the complex, an expanse of green almost impossible to find this close to the centre of Venice.

02Rooms and suites

The 45 keys are split between 17 rooms and 28 suites, arranged across the Palladio and Villa Frollo buildings, with categories running from Superior and Deluxe rooms up through Junior Suites, a Prestige suite with a San Marco view, and a Suite with a direct view of St Mark's itself. At the top sits the Suite del Doge, a 450 square metre apartment with panoramic views over the lagoon, while the Signature Suites, ranging between 155 and 202 square metres, open onto either a terrace facing St Mark's or the gardens and lagoon beyond.

Insider tip

Reached by hotel boat or water taxi from St Mark's Square in about five minutes.

For families or larger parties, a private three-bedroom villa with its own pool offers a self-contained retreat within the grounds. Throughout the rooms, hand-painted frescoes sit alongside fabrics from Venetian houses Rubelli and Fortuny and antique furniture, an interior language built on a dialogue between local craftsmanship and the house's own contemporary sensibility.

03Where to eat

Four chefs new to Venice anchor the hotel's dining, each occupying their own distinct space within the grounds. Jean-Georges Vongerichten brings his abc Kitchens concept to Italy for the first time, following addresses in New York, Tokyo and London, with a Mediterranean-leaning menu served in a bright, informal room. Norbert Niederkofler, the triple-MICHELIN-starred chef from the Dolomites known for his commitment to local producers, takes charge of Villa Frollo, where a candlelit dining room and a tasting menu built around lagoon ingredients pay tribute to the waters just outside the window.

Nobu Matsuyama's first Matsuhisa restaurant in Venice sits within the same grounds, pairing Japanese technique with Peruvian influence across an à la carte menu and an Omakase tasting. For dessert, Cédric Grolet arrives in Italy for the first time too, bringing his sculpted fruit and flower pastries to a dedicated space alongside a traditional Venetian cicchetti bar for something lighter between meals.

04The bar

Drinking at the Palladio spreads across three separate bars, from an informal cicchetti counter to Elton's Club, a space created in collaboration with Elton John. The Palladio Bar doubles as a stage for the concierge team's own programme of experiences, including a mixologist masterclass built around the house's own cocktail list, set against the garden and the lagoon beyond.

05Spa and wellbeing

At 1,700 square metres across three floors, the Airelles Spa by Guerlain is the largest in Venice, built around an indoor pool known as the Domus, a serenity garden, a yoga studio, a hammam, Finnish saunas and a Japanese Iyashi Dôme infrared sauna. Guerlain created an exclusive collection of rituals for the opening, with treatments named Aqua Venizia, Terra Venizia, Gondola Sway and Crystal Glow, alongside Longeviskin, a set of face and body technologies unique to the hotel.

Beyond the five treatment rooms, Rossano Ferretti operates a dedicated HairSpa here, one of only a handful worldwide alongside New York, Paris and Hong Kong. Outdoors, three further pools are scattered through the gardens, with a fourth reserved for guests of the private villa, and a Kids' Club rounds out the offer for families travelling together.

06The neighbourhood

Giudecca sits directly across the Giudecca Canal from the Dorsoduro and San Marco sestieri, quiet by Venetian standards and still carrying a local character the more trafficked parts of the city have largely lost. Historically favoured by Venetian aristocracy, artists and religious orders seeking distance from the city's intensity, the island has kept a more lived-in rhythm even as tourism reshaped the historic centre, while remaining only minutes away from St Mark's Square by water taxi or hotel boat.

07Making the most of a stay

The concierge team runs a rotating weekly programme of experiences woven into a stay, from an after-hours visit to St Mark's Basilica and an exclusive tour of the Doge's Palace to a private rowing lesson in the Venetian style, a wine tasting, or a session painting the city with a resident artist. For those visiting during the Biennale, an exclusive visit can be arranged through the same concierge desk.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.