La Locandiera Hotel ***
La Locandiera offers new and comfortable three-star accommodation close to St Mark’s in the heart of Venice. It’s small and low-key, but offers very nice rooms at good prices. We stayed there for four nights in March 2006.
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Italy Heaven Review
We booked a triple room at La Locandiera for a special birthday trip in March 2006. After spending considerable time researching Venice’s three and four-star hotels we were hopeful that we’d chosen well. Having specified on our booking form that we wanted three single beds, and not hearing to the contrary, it was extremely disappointing to arrive and find ourselves in a room with a double and a single bed. The hotel receptionist was apologetic but could do nothing to help as – unusually for a hotel in Italy – it had no beds which could be separated into singles.
This got our dream trip off to a rocky start. A shame, for in any other circumstances we’d have been delighted with the room. It was large, clean and airy, with a very large double bed and a single that could be converted into a sofa. Furnishings were tasteful and fairly good quality: we had a desk, a chair, ample wardrobe space, one suitcase stand and a chest of drawers. A glaring omission was a mirror – since we were three girls sharing a room, we definitely needed more than one bathroom mirror between us! Coathooks, too, would have been useful.
The bathroom was spacious and gleamingly-clean, with a good shower. The beds were firm and comfortable, with rather thin pillows. The location was quiet and it was easy to sleep. Our room looked out over the little square in front of the hotel.
The staff were helpful and friendly. One receptionist was absolutely lovely; she was terribly apologetic about the bed mix up, happily brought tea and biscuits up to the room for us… and a birthday gift of a book appeared in the room, courtesy of the hotel. Reasonable English was spoken.
Breakfast was a generous spread by Italian standards. It included hardboiled eggs, which were very popular with one of my companions. There were also rolls, croissants, yoghurts, a choice of cereals, pre-packaged cheeses and ‘toasts’, filled croissants, jams, fruit juices, tea and coffee.
We stayed in the hotel for four nights, and apart from the initial mix-up we were very pleased with our accommodation. The location was ideal for seeing the area around St. Mark’s and for exploring on foot, as well as being quite handy for the ferry stop. It’s a small and quiet establishment, without much public space and run on a modest scale. When we stayed in our room until lunchtime we obviously outstayed the cleaners, since our room was untouched that day. Generally everything was kept very clean, though, and we found this a good, quiet and comfortable base for seeing Venice.
Hotel address: Campo San Giovanni Nuovo 4432. From Riva degli Schiavoni (San Zaccaria vaporetto stop) walk down the narrow Calle degli Albanesi until you reach the little triangular ‘square’ called Campo SS Filippo e Giacomo. Take the lane by the Aciugheta restaurant. Continue past an internet cafe and other businesses. Then turn left into Calle a Fianco la Chiesa and walk a very short distance until you come to a little square. The entrance to the hotel, on your right, is marked unobtrusively by a brass plaque – if the door is closed, ring the doorbell for admittance.
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La Locandiera review by an Italy Heaven editor.