Aman Venice

Aman Venice occupies the Palazzo Papadopoli, a 16th-century palace on the Grand Canal in Sestiere San Polo, one of 8 monumental palazzos still standing on the waterway. A boat brings most guests straight to the water gate; Jean-Michel Gathy designed the interiors beyond it, setting a contemporary hand against the Rococo frescoes, hand-painted silk and gilded stucco the palazzo has carried since it was a private residence. The palazzo keeps 2 private gardens behind that water gate, rare in a city built on canals rather than lawns. A historical tour of the palazzo comes with every stay.

The ladder runs 11 grades, from Room to Signature Room to Suite to Apartment, and it is really about how much of the palazzo's own history sits inside the walls. Grand Canal Suite is 97 square metres, its sitting room lit through a filigreed arched window over the water; Alcova Tiepolo Suite, at 103, is wrapped in the 18th-century frescoes Giovanni Battista Tiepolo painted directly onto its own ceiling. The 3 Signature Rooms — Papadopoli Stanza Canal Grande, Maddalena Stanza Canal Grande and Sansovino Stanza — carry a fireplace, frescoes or silk wall coverings of their own, running 62 to 75 square metres. The 4 Rooms are plainer and wider in range, 47 to 89 square metres, finished in the same silk and chinoiserie but with fewer frescoes overhead. For a group, the Coccina's Apartment spans the palazzo's entire 4th floor at 290 square metres across 3 bedrooms, reached by its own lift; Grand Canal Apartment is 226, 3 bedrooms in their own wing, each built to the plan of a room elsewhere on this list.

The concierge arranges a private boat for the lagoon, an aperitivo on the water, or a table at Arva or the Palazzo Kitchen Table before a stay begins. Housekeeping restocks the in-room bar daily, and the front desk runs on the rhythm of a city built on water rather than road, timing every transfer around it.