Checking In: Airelles Palladio, Venice
Airelles Palladio, Venice
Five minutes by boat from San Marco, on Giudecca, Airelles Palladio has taken over three sixteenth-century buildings and transformed it into a storied forty-five-room retreat.
Location
Giudecca sits across the water from San Marco, five minutes by boat and several degrees quieter. The island was once where Venetian aristocracy kept their gardens and orchards, and traces of that remain in the walled plots and communal vegetable gardens still worked along its length.
The Fortuny showroom, in the former residence of Countess Elsie McNeil, opens by appointment onto one of the city's quieter gardens. A few minutes along the fondamenta, Il Redentore stands as Palladio's votive church, built after the plague of 1576 and still the focus of a July festival when a pontoon bridge crosses the canal from Venice proper. The Giudecca Art District occupies reclaimed industrial buildings further west, and the artisan workshops at the former Convento dei Santi Cosma e Damiano remain open to visitors working in glass, metal and paper.
Rooms
Rubelli and Fortuny fabrics, hand-painted frescoes, Murano glass and terrazzo, restored under Christophe Tollemer.
Airelles Palladio comprises 17 rooms and 28 suites across three restored 16th-century buildings, alongside a three-bedroom private villa with its own pool and garden. The room count was reduced from ninety, which accounts for the proportions inside: suites and bathrooms here run larger than Venice usually permits.
Christophe Tollemer, architect and artistic director across the Airelles collection, led the restoration. Interiors bring French linens against Italian sources — hand-painted frescoes, Rubelli and Fortuny fabrics, terrazzo and marble floors, Murano glass, Fortuny chandeliers. The palette runs to amber, mahogany and deep blue. Villa Frollo, built as a holiday house for Venetian nobility and later a boarding house favoured by painters and writers, holds the Presidential Suite with a full view across to Piazza San Marco. The Conventino, set back within the gardens, holds further rooms and the private villa.
Junior Suite
Junior Suite
Deluxe Room
Dining
Four chefs, arriving in Venice for the first time.
Four chefs opened here at once, each arriving in Venice for the first time. Jean-Georges Vongerichten's abc kitchens Palladio runs Mediterranean cooking through the day, from breakfast onward. Nobu Matsuhisa's Matsuhisa serves signature dishes and omakase at dinner. Norbert Niederkofler, three Michelin stars and a Dolomites background, cooks at Villa Frollo under the banner Cook the Lagoon, working directly with producers around the lagoon and serving by candlelight. Cédric Grolet handles pastry and viennoiserie, bringing his sculptural fruits and flowers alongside creations made for the property.
Beyond the restaurants, Palladio Bar looks out over the fondamenta and the lagoon, with a concealed door leading through to the Church of Santa Maria della Presentazione, consecrated in 1588 and hung with works by Venetian masters. Zitelle Bacaro serves cicchetti on a terrace facing San Marco. Elton's Club, developed with Elton John, brings a music-led room to the property.
abc kitchens
Palladio Bar
Wellness
A hectare of gardens, three pools and a spa across 1,700 square metres.
The Airelles Spa runs across 1,700 square metres with a wellness garden attached, developed in partnership with Guerlain. Three pools sit within nearly a hectare of Mediterranean gardens, an amount of open ground almost unheard of in the city. The Rossano Ferretti HairSpa handles hair and beauty, and a Kids Club runs for families staying longer.
The gardens do much of the work on their own. Walled, planted and set away from the fondamenta, they offer the kind of quiet that Venice rarely makes room for.
For those planning a stay on Giudecca, The Affluence's luxury travel concierge arranges access to Airelles Palladio with exclusive benefits. Contact our travel experts for more information.
Website: Discover
Instagram: @airellesvenice
Location
Giudecca runs at its own pace. Begin at Il Redentore, Palladio's votive church raised after the plague of 1576, before walking west along the fondamenta to the Fortuny showroom, where fabric has been made by a method the family has never disclosed. Lunch at Trattoria Altanella, hidden on Calle delle Erbe with a balcony hanging over the Rio del Ponte Lungo, brings grilled octopus, moscardini on hot polenta and calf's liver alla veneziana. Al Pontil handles cicchetti and home cooking in a room with the radio always on. Further along, the Giudecca Art District occupies reclaimed industrial space, and the workshops at the former Convento dei Santi Cosma e Damiano keep glass, metal and paper crafts in working order. Libreria Marco Polo carries books and the hand-made bags produced by women at the island's prison under the Le Malefatte label.
