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ABOVE: The 18th Century breakfast room of the
Luna Hotel Baglioni in Venice, Italy.
Restaurants
Breakfast is served in a room that wouldn't look out of
place at Versailles or Schönbrunn. (See photo
above.) A generous buffet of breads, pastries, cold cuts, smoked salmon,
cereals, eggs, fresh fruit, and a table of "bio" health-food items is
included in the Luna's rates, or you can have breakfast served in your room for
an additional charge.
Comment: You won't find a friendlier or more
competent serving staff than the women in the Luna's breakfast room. The
Italian server who greeted us in English each morning slipped effortlessly
into Deutsch when a German couple arrived.
The Canova Restaurant offers Venetian and international
dishes in two attractively furnished dining rooms just inside the hotel
entrance. I had a very pleasant dinner of pasta e fagioli (traditional
pasta and bean soup), sliced Angus beef filet with parmesan cheese and rosemary,
and "Three Chocolates Delight" with pistachio sauce. A risotto of
radicchio from Treviso, sea bass with artichokes and chives, mallard breast,
Venetian-style liver and onions, and Amaretto zagablione with "a drop of Grand
Marnier" were some of the other items on the menu during my visit. Service was
impeccable without being stuffy, and the dress code was relaxed enough to allow
open-necked shirts and sweaters. Our fellow guests were an eclectic bunch that
included British diners, an Italian mother with her adolescent daughter, and a
young couple with a small baby.
Bar
The Luna Hotel Baglioni's elegant bar is across the lobby from
the restaurant. It offers all the usual drinks, including Prosecco
(Venice's answer to Champagne), spremuta or freshly-squeezed fruit juice,
and--in season--Bellini cocktails, which combine Prosecco with the juice
of white peaches.
TIP: In the lounge next to the bar, you'll pass an
archway that leads to a boardroom. An Internet terminal is tucked into a niche,
and you can use it to check your e-mail or browse the Web free of charge.
Special events
Stefano Bàccara, the Luna's general manager,
told me about special parties that take place at the hotel:
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When
Carnival arrives in February, the chef
prepares a heavy, almost dessert-like hot chocolate that is served with
traditional frittelli or fritters at a daily "chocolate party" at 5
p.m. in the 18th Century breakfast room. Costumed members of Venice's
Amici del Carnevale dance as a trio plays Vivaldi for the crowd of
Venetians and hotel guests.
Next page:
Location and
transportation
Photo: Baglioni Hotels. Used by permission.
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