Venice, the grand old theatre of water, marble and wonderfully impractical luggage, is not exactly short of admirers. On some days, it appears most of them have arrived together. Yet the city still keeps a calmer card up its silk sleeve. Cross a few bridges, leave the marching columns behind, and Dorsoduro begins to do what Venice has always done best: reveal itself quietly.
That is the charm behind Excess Venice, a boutique retreat tucked inside a 17th-century Venetian palazzo in one of the city’s most graceful neighbourhoods. Led by Elisabetta Dotto, the hotel has been shaped not as another frantic stop on the tourist treadmill, but as a refined pause button. In a city where the map can look like lace and the crowds can move like a football final, that is no small luxury.
Dorsoduro is Venice with its jacket loosened. From Excess Venice, guests can wander rather than rush, which is precisely the point. The Squero di San Trovaso, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Punta della Dogana, the Zattere waterfront, and Campo Santa Margherita are all within easy walking distance. This is not Venice by checklist. It is Venice by footstep, glance and happy detour.
The hotel’s rare private garden is the ace in the palazzo pack. In Venice, outdoor space is precious; a spacious outdoor space with hedges is practically a miracle. Here, guests can read, breathe, take coffee, or simply sit still after a day of bridges, basilicas and bewildered map-folding. The garden does not shout. It settles the day.
Inside, Excess Venice takes the good manners of history and gives them a modern cut. Bespoke furnishings, tactile materials and intimate rooms sit comfortably beside the bones of the old building. The result is residential rather than showy, polished rather than pompous, and personal without trying too hard.
For travellers, and for travel advisors seeking a sharper Venice recommendation, the message is simple. There remains a Venice beyond the obvious postcards, one of lived-in streets, artisans, galleries, canal corners and evening light on stone. Excess Venice gives guests a handsome base from which to find it.
Mass tourism may own the queue, but slow Venice still owns the soul. And in Dorsoduro, Excess Venice makes a very persuasive case for putting the itinerary down and letting the city speak first.
By: Alison Jenkins – © 2026.
Read Time: 2 minutes.
Author Bio:
Alison Jenkins has lived most of her working life in the slipstream of aviation, where timetables matter, and people matter more. In airline sales, she built a reputation the old-fashioned way: by knowing her clients, her routes, and never missing the human detail.
Quick with a smile, quicker with a solution, she made deals with warmth and kept her edge intact.
Trade shows, FAMILS, airport lounges and hotel lobbies became her second address. And somewhere along the way, notebook in hand, she began writing the journeys rather than selling them. Her reports grew lively, observant, full of the small truths only travellers notice.
That was the moment it dawned on her: she wasn’t simply travelling. She belonged in its stories.
