The hotel cipriani is beautiful and elegant, The staff are very attentive and the hotel is very clean. The Cips restaurant is below average for the calibre of hotel, food cold, menu not very imaginative, overpriced although again the staff were attentive. The .pool restaurant for lunch was very very expensive, staff were very poor and food not great, The main resturant in the evening however made up for the other two, this was very elegant, staff very attentive, food very good, beautiful table overlooking the lagoon. Overall i would say you have to visit this hotel although it is very overpriced for what you get, we stayed in a one bedroomed suite overlooking the lagoon on the fourth floor, its charm, elegance , and position and breakfasts balance the fact it is very VERY expensive for what you have , the food and service in two of its three restaurants are not great.

We were celebrating our anniversary and decided to take the plunge and stay at the Cip and Vendremin. We were greeted warmly by Virglio and shown to the accomadation that we had booked directly with M. Rusconi. True to our arrangements, we were shown to a beautiful junior suite in the Palazetto with a view toward St Marks. All was well as we dined our first night at Fortuny on the terrace - grand meal and fine wine. Upon return to our room my wife entered the bathroom and to her surprise, found that the plumbing above had sprung a leak and that water was pouring out of the ceiling light fixtures. Within perhaps two minutes of advising the front desk of this emergency, and we in our robes and slippers, were whisked to a grand suite in the Palazzo Vendremin with the staff packing our belongings behind us. The next day we were offered the choice of staying in the Palazzo or returning to the Palazetto. We chose the latter. The handling of the event with ablomb and grace was indicative of the level of service and concern that this hotel shows its guests. The remainder of our stay was magical- delightful dinner at Cip's Club with excellent polla ala diavolo, great lunch at Gabbiano by the pool, an excursion for some golf on the Lido, and just the joy of the trips to and from Bassano San Marco on the hotel's launch. We had drinks at the bar one evening to find George Clooney present being showered with gifts from his entourage. But every one of the hotel guests was discreet and never bothered him. This is the place to go and relax- sit by the pool if the mood strikes you, or walk along the canal for some gelato in the afternoon, and the major attractions of Venice are a glorious brief boat ride away. We will return again and again and cannot resist the allure of this place.

As Mark Twain said, it is better to travel than to arrive, and given the reputation of this hotel, arrival was a huge disappointment. We have stayed at top hotels all over the world and have been to Venice 8 times, so we do not have unrealistic expectations, here is a quick summary of what we found. We booked a Junior suite for the night, which at 1600 euros a night you ought to expect a reasonable standard of accomodation, even in expensive Venice. The hallway to the room was a long dark corridor, done floor to ceiling in sponged peach circa 1980 something, with peach carpet which had that sticky feeling you get from carpets so old no amount of cleaning can remove the gunge. The room was at the back of the hotel, overlooking a patchy muddy lawn and motheaten hedge with a dirty white plastic wedding marquee left standing in it permanently (the garden). The bathroom had the same plastic bath your grandmother has in her bungalow (peach with handles to pull yourself up if your knees are bad), a square box hairdryer which I last saw in a municipal pool in the 1970s, with the squeegy air tube ripped and broken, a vanity mirror with rust stains around the edge and every time I hung the towel up it fell into the toilet below. The toiletries were ancient looking and were probably used last by Agatha Christie to talc her bloomers. I then asked very firmly but politely to be moved to another room. We were given apologies (eventually) and told that the hotel was "in the process of being refurbished" and shown another room. This was tastefully furnished, had a private terrace on the roof above with a panoramic view of the Grand Canal to die for and a large bathroom, it was just what we thought we should have been given in the first place. When I booked the room I was told we couldn't request a particular room. When we left I asked if we could have the nice room again and were told that they always try to accomodate repeat customers. So, if its your first and only time, beware, and don't let them fob you off with the stale fag end of the hotel. On the plus side (!) the staff had a proper old fashioned polite and accomodating at your service ethic, attentive without being intrusive, the pool was pure Hollywood gorgeousness and the breakfast room with ripples of water reflected on the ceiling as you gaze straight out over the canal was magic. So don't expect faded glory charm, its too tired to even achieve that, but if you can put up with the feeling that Farah Fawcett is likely to come bounding out of the fake white trellis in the wine bar, it does grows on you and I have to say I would stay there again, albeit in the knowledge there are some better rooms than others.

We had a lovely suite in Palazzo Vendramin with a little garden and a kitchen.. Beautiful marble bathroom with all the amenities you could wish for even sun tan lotion and candles! Out of this world...