Hotel Campiello ***
The Campiello is an extremely nice three-star hotel in an ideal location in Venice, not far from St. Mark’s Square. Small and elegant, the hotel is a very comfortable place to stay. We’ve spent a night there, some years ago, and would recommend it. Do check the most recent online reviews before you make your booking.
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Italy Heaven Review
I stayed anonymously at the three-star Hotel Campiello in May 2006, booking a single room at €70 for one night.
Hotel Campiello is unusually easy to find for a Venetian hotel. It’s also conveniently close to a ferry stop, meaning an easy arrival with my suitcase.
This is the sort of hotel which fills me with a happy glow from the moment I walk in the door. After buzzing the doorbell to be let in, I’m greeted by a charming and handsome receptionist, who appears to work 12-hour shifts, although you’d never guess it from his cheery demeanor. The hotel is small and smart – although it may be classed as a three-star, the owners have gone the extra mile with the decoration. Everything here seems classy and good quality. My single room is compact, but newly and well-furnished. Lots of mirrors and pale paint make it feel larger. The decor is very tasteful.
Furniture includes a suitcase stand, chair, TV (with BBC World and CNN), wardrobe, safe and a full-length mirror. I particularly appreciate the attractive glass chandelier (no sense of single rooms being second-rate cubby-holes here) and my view over the quiet little square. The shower-room is also bijou, but gleaming, new and spotless. It’s a cold night for May, so I’m glad of the spare blanket stored in the wardrobe.
Sadly, although the bed is comfortable and the location quiet, I only get a few hours sleep. I’ll put this down as bad luck, however, since I’m not sure the hotel deserves more than a smidgen of the blame. Read my travel journal for an account of my fellow guests’ Venetian romance gone wrong (to cut a long story short, a German couple spent hours arguing in their room and through their door after one shut the other out).
Breakfast is a smallish buffet with the usual range of cold fare, including fresh bread. Teapots are presented with a choice of teabags for the discerning foreign visitor, but I’m disappointed that the fruit ‘juice’ is the artificial watery liquid I’m used to encountering in cheap hotels.
Despite being graded with only three stars and offering some good prices, the Campiello has a very smart and refined atmosphere (with the exception of the guests alluded to above). Over breakfast some of the English-speaking guests compare notes over our disturbed slumbers.
The hotel is well-equipped and well-run. I encounter two receptionists, day and night, and both are extremely friendly and helpful. There is a lift, pleasant but small public spaces and a computer with an internet connection which guests can use free.
Hotel address: Castello 4647. From the San Zaccaria vaporetto stop, cross the wide promenade of Riva degli Schiavoni and take Calle del Vin. The hotel is only a short distance up the lane: buzz for admittance.
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Hotel Campiello review by an Italy Heaven editor.