In crowded Venice most hotels are small, but the Cipriani has all the space it needs for its beautiful sprawling gardens, a vineyard, the main residence and two restored palazzos, the Vendramin and the Nani Barbaro . Not only is it the one hotel in the city with tennis courts and a swimming pool, but the pool is olympic-sized. And there's room for several restaurants and bars. Cip's Club at the Palazzetto , a lively restaurant-pizzeria and the newest of the hotel's eateries, provides dining indoors, on a terrace and on a floating lagoon. Then there's Il Gabbiano piano bar, the Poolside Bar , San Giorgio and the famed Ristorante Cipriani , a dramatic domed Venetian dining room.
Good service has many facets.
At the Cipriani it means a courtly front desk staff exuding Continental charm while taking care of every request. It also means a private English butler who escorted me to my suite, the top floor of a duplex, and stayed long enough to make me comfortable. This was truly a suite with a view, the sweep of San Marco and the Venetian skyline as painted by Tinteretto. If I wanted to eat in, my butler might have prepared the pasta in the cupboard. At dusk, I strolled on the walkway stretching along Guidecca's lagoon side.