Venice, the seven-star hotel opens. Fresco paintings by Tiepolo in the rooms

VENICE – At the Aman Canal Grande Venice, you sleep amidst Tiepolo’s fresco paintings, check-in along the Sansovino stairway and when it is time for a bath, relax in tubs as large as small swimming pools with a view over the water. The Italian dinner is served in the ballroom, whilst the Japanese option is provided in the mandarin garden; soap comes from the golden hands of the Giudecca inmates and in the spa, on the top floor, guests can enjoy a wonderful foot massage lasting twenty minutes for each foot.

The new Singapore chain resort, the first in Italy and third in Europe, opens to the world laden with the history of Palazzo Papadoppoli, of sophisticated technology hidden beneath the Rubelli fabrics and the graceful charm of the East. A treasure chest desired by the founder of Amanresorts, Adrian Zecha, built in 18 months by the Dottor Group and ready to amaze even guests accustomed to seeing their dreams fulfilled.

In figures: 24 suites (each ranging from 50 to 150 square metres), two restaurants, a Padua-born chef (Lorenzo Bau), a Japanese chef, two gardens, a turret on the sixth floor, a small wooden bridge over Canal Grande, a back entrance for those looking for particular discretion, a library with walls clad in leather and decorated with gold leaf, a bar lifted up on a pedestal, 6 thousand square metres of common areas and 59 employees (almost all Venetians) in a chocolate-coloured uniform.

Then there are the aspects that simply cannot be counted, weighed or touched. It is the cosy luxury, the wonderful sensation of entering a hotel that is as sumptuous as a palace yet as intimate as a home. Not to mention the brass key to open the rooms, which are not numbered, but rather named. The Tiepolo suite featuring the fresco paintings by Giovan Battista Tiepolo and the Chinese, hand-painted living room, the Sansovino suite with the fireplace designed by Jacopo Sansovino, the Papadopoli suite with the fresco-painted bathroom, crystal radiators and bathrobes that feel like real fur. And there is even an 11-metre taxi created specifically for the Aman, available 24 hours a day for its guests.

The numbers, the view and the glorious past of the building owned by the Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga family (who live on the top floor) have sent the number of stars skyrocketing to a legendary “seven”, although the maximum for Italy is, of course, five. It is priced accordingly: from € 1,000 to € 3,500 per night. Yesterday say a tea party with the neighbours, master craftsmen and suppliers. The official opening is scheduled for a few days’ time, and September will see a great party open to all.

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