Hotel San Moisè Review

Our stay at the Hotel San Moisè:

ABOVE: The view from room 107. INSET BELOW: A Murano glass light fixture.

My son and I walked to the Hotel San Moisè from the Zaccaria vaporetto stop above the Piazza San Marco, arriving just before 11 a.m. Our room wasn't yet ready, so we left our bags at the hotel and headed for the Lido.

When we returned at 2 p.m., we were given the key to room 107, which turned out to be in a separate building around the corner from the hotel entrance.

The receptionist opened a wooden gate, and we stepped into an attractive courtyard-garden with tables and chairs for lounging.

We entered a door, climbed a stone staircase, and arrived in a lounge that was pure Venetian: a large space with beamed ceilings, a Murano glass chandelier, and antique wooden furniture. (One of the tables was covered with magazines in several languages.)

Our room was on the same floor as the lounge, but a wooden staircase led up to a gallery with more guest rooms.

Room 107 turned out to be large by Venetian hotel standards, with a slightly trapezoidal shape, terrazzo floors,  a beamed ceiling, and multicolored light fixtures of Murano glass.

A sleeping niche contained single beds arranged as a queen. The non-sleeping half of the room was furnished with armchairs, a small writing desk, a built-in armoire, and a large dresser with a minibar.

To our pleasant surprise, the minibar's prices were far more reasonable than most, so that we didn't hesitate to take bottles of mineral water for the plane on our departure.

The large tiled bathroom had modern fixtures, including a bidet and full-size bathroom with shower.

The shutters were closed, so I opened them and discovered the room's best feature: a view of a canal junction from three large windows (two in the bedroom, one in the bath).

From an earlier stay at the nearby Hotel Kette, I remembered that the canal was popular with musical gondola tours, and--sure enough--a flotilla of gondolas with musicians and a singer came into view as I leaned out to take a picture.

Gondolas continued to pass our windows into the late evening, lingering for a moment or two as the gondoliers turned their boats in the canal basin. (Noise wasn't a problem, however; we simply shut the windows when we'd had our fill of tenors, baritones, accordions, and guitars. And at night, the room was almost eerily silent, since air conditioning wasn't needed during our visit.)

The next morning, we went down to the breakfast room, which is located in the main building's former water entrance. The San Moisè's breakfast was generous by Italian three-star hotel standards: A waitress brought the traditional basket of rolls and cornetti (apricot jam-filled croissants), and there was a large buffet with juices, coffee and tea, chilled mineral water, toast, cereals, and other items.

Our verdict:

The Hotel San Moisè isn't cheap, but its rates aren't out of line for a three-star hotel within a five-minute walk of the Piazza San Marco and the Alilaguna airport boat.

If you can afford it, splurge on a canal view: Your memories of passing gondolas, musicians, and singers will be with you for a long time.

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Directions to the hotel:

The Hotel San Moisè is on the Calle del Cristo in San Marco, about a five-minute walk from the Piazza San Marco. Here's how to reach it:

By water taxi: Just tell the boatman "Hotel San Moisè." The water taxi will drop you off at the hotel entrance.

From the vaporetto and airport-boat stop at San Marco Giardinetti: See our step-by-step directions to the Hotel San Moisè. (You'll also use these directions if you're coming from a cruise ship.)

More photos: 

The entrance of the Hotel San Moisè is next to a canal (see tourist with camera). In the upper left-hand corner of the picture, you can see a balcony overlooking the canal from the hotel's main building.

The main lobby has a reception desk and a seating area.

To reach room 107, we entered this private courtyard from the Calle del Cristo, which is around the corner from the main entrance. If it hadn't been raining, we would have been tempted to have a picnic at one of the tables.

Note the Venetian Gothic windows in the upper left section of the photo: The glowing lights inside are from a Murano glass chandelier in the upstairs lounge near our room.

A wrought-iron and glass door with its own electronic lock separates the converted palazzo from the courtyard.

This photo doesn't do justice to the upstairs lounge, which looks like an aristocratic palace from the Venetian Republic's heyday.

A wooden staircase leads up to a gallery with rooms on the second floor (or the third floor, if you're from the United States).

Room 107 is huge. (This yellowish cast is the fault of the camera and the photographer, not the decorator.)

The bed in room 107 is tucked into a niche with a structural column at one corner.

The large tiled bathroom has modern fixtures (including a bidet and full-size bathtub with shower).

From the bathroom window, I looked down and snapped this picture of a Gondola Serenade tour.

This final picture was taken from one of the two large windows in the main room. As you can see, the canal by the Hotel San Moisè widens into a basin where gondolas turn (and occasionally are passed by water taxis) before heading down a side canal.

To check rates or book at room at the Hotel San Moisè, click the button below. (You'll be taken to the Hotel San Moisè pages at Booking.com, our hotel partner, which is Europe's leading secure reservations service.)

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About the author:

Durant Imboden has written about Venice, Italy since 1996. He covered Venice and European travel at About.com for 4-1/2 years before launching Europe for Visitors (including Venice for Visitors) with Cheryl Imboden in 2001.

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