The Gritti Palace

When I was a small girl, I watched the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on television. As I admired her pretty, billowy dress, my mother snarked that “being a princess in real life isn’t going to be any fun.” She was right. Luckily, my Dad never called me princess. No delusions here.

But even I have sometimes wondered what it would be like to live in a palace with a glittering chandeliers, creepy paintings, gilded mirrors and views of an ancient city. Thankfully, the Gritti Palace in Venice affords anyone the opportunity to live like a king. Or at the least imagine themselves a pampered member of the leisured class. Or a Courtesan. Or Cardinal.

Built in 1525 as a residence for the Doge of Venice and later the residence of the Ambassador from the Vatican, the opulent palace sits on the Grand Canal and affords its guests glorious views of St. Mark’s Cathedral. Guests enjoy rooms decorated with antiques and period-appropriate detail, but everything that counts (like plumbing and mattresses) has been modernized.