Venice is constantly evolving… what are we saying… Italy is constantly evolving and it’s hard to keep up with each and every incredible corner our country has to offer. Yet, some treasures have stood the test of time, quietly waiting to be rediscovered. Luckily for you, we’ve uncovered a few of these timeless wonders — and today, we’re diving into five places you should know in Venice.
Hotel Nani Mocenigo
Housed in a 15th-century palazzo overlooking the Rio di San Trovaso in the Dorsoduro Neighbourhood, this late-Gothic masterpiece still bears the soul of its aristocratic past. Brocade fabrics, Murano glass sculptures and original frescoes whisper of centuries gone by, while the rhythm of its pointed arches and quatrefoil windows hints at the city’s ever-present beauty. The palace was commissioned by the Barbarigo family as part of the dowry of Elena Barbarigo, daughter of Doge Agostino Barbarigo, and her husband Giorgio Nani. Centuries later, the palace has been lovingly restored by Paolo Caffi and his wife, who treated the project with love and care, as if it were their home. The result is an intimate, elegant 30-room hotel with restored frescoes by Jacopo Guarana, stuccoes by Alessandro Vittoria, and a magnificent courtyard where the day rolls out amidst plants, sunshine and quietude. Recently, Chef Gennaro Esposito took the reigns of La Bauta restaurant, bringing his southern influences to Venetian traditional dishes. The result? A menu that speaks of season, flavour and Mediterranean. Don’t miss the Spaghetti al Pomodoro, Chef’s classic, as well as Risotto e Orata, made with saffron and locally caught seabream. As for dessert, Pastry Chef Raffaele Santoro also brings a touch of the south with the irresistible babà (the rum is poured later).
Palazzo Fortuny
Once the home and studio of Mariano Fortuny, the Spanish-born polymath who fell under the city’s spell at the turn of the 20th century, it remains steeped in his creative spirit. Trained as a painter at the Accademia and captivated by photography, sculpture and stage design, Fortuny’s fascination with light and fabric led him to revolutionise textile art. In 1906, a French countess commissioned him to design a hand-printed velvet and silk curtain for her private theatre — a masterpiece that defined his distinctive aesthetic. When silk and velvet became too costly after 1914, Fortuny turned to cotton, transforming it into luminous fabrics of extraordinary depth and texture. By 1921 he had installed his printing machines inside the factory on La Giudecca island, where production continues to this day — the last Venetian workshop of its kind, creating over a hundred patterns in a spectrum of hues. You can visit the showroom, where his prints are beautifully collected as well as his former home, which today doubles up as a gallery with works from French sculptor Pierre Sabatier (which are also for sale).
Trattoria del Local
In Venice’s Castello district, Trattoria del Local is the latest opening from Benedetta Fullin and Manuel Trevisan—already behind the Michelin-starred Local. This eatery channels the same culinary intelligence into a far more relaxed, deeply comforting format. At the helm is chef Salvatore Sodano, who leaves innovation at the door in favour of recipes that speak the language of memory: honest, familiar and quietly irresistible. This is not a “contemporary trattoria” by design, but a place that feels like a Sunday lunch extended into everyday life. The menu reads like a love letter to Venetian and Italian home cooking—bigoli in salsa, fegato alla veneziana, moscardini in umido, gnocchi del giovedì, baccalà on Fridays—peppered with gentle nods to Sodano’s Campanian roots, including an indulgent ragù on Sundays. Prices are reassuringly accessible, the atmosphere warm and unfussy, and the wine list champions small local producers, even reviving the nostalgic quartino of house wine
Mani-Fattura Exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
At the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Mani-Fattura reframes Lucio Fontana through an unexpectedly intimate lens, placing his lifelong relationship with clay at centre stage. Curated by Sharon Hecker after more than five years of research, the exhibition brings together around seventy ceramic and sculptural works—many rarely seen—to reveal an artist far richer and more vulnerable than the myth of the famous slashes suggests. Hands sunk into clay, not canvas, Fontana emerges here as a maker shaped by trauma, tactility and touch: from early terracottas and archaic female figures to raw crucifixions and monumental works such as the haunting Torso Italico. War, loss and renewal run quietly through the galleries, while photographs and QR-led insights deepen the sense of process and physicality. The result is a deeply human portrait of Fontana—ceramics as an act of survival, vitality and reinvention—set within one of Venice’s most elegant museum settings, and well worth lingering over until its close in March 2026.
ABC Zattere
At Palazzo alle Zattere, Venice’s quietly evolving cultural hub, ABC is the kind of restaurant designed to make time pleasantly irrelevant. Conceived as part of the broader Scuola Piccola Zattere project, founded by Victoria Mikhelson and guided by the forward-thinking direction of Irene Calderoni, ABC is more than a place to eat: it is a convivial extension of a multidisciplinary world of exhibitions, artist residencies and performance spaces. Designed by Fosbury Architecture, it’s deeply rooted in Venetian memory: boiserie inspired by historic bars, traditional mattonata flooring crafted with Fornaci Sant’Anselmo, a long bench made from reclaimed Istrian stone from the Arsenale, and a pergola echoing the movable baldachin of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. In the kitchen, chef Nathan Cal Danby completes the picture with a contemporary, thoughtful menu.