Bown's Best - Hotel des Bains, Venice Lido, Italy

VENICE LIDO

HOTEL DES BAINS

Hotel les Bains, Venice Lido, Italy Hotels for civilized family holidays are not easy to find. Adults and children have different interests and requirements. The hotel which caters for the grown-ups can often be the last place to provide satisfactorily for the energetic youngsters. But think of this: a huge Art Nouveau palace, with spacious accommodation and elegant public rooms, with its own private beach of sand and sea (well stocked with beach huts for families), with a large swimming pool in its surrounding gardens – and yet with one of the world’s most beautiful and historically important cities only thirty minutes away by private launch. All this is offered by the famous Hotel Des Bains on the Venice Lido.

Hotel les Bains, Venice Lido, Italy I call the hotel famous, and so it is. Since it opened its doors in 1900, it has found favour not only with Europe’s nobility and gentry, but also with some of our greatest artists. The writer Thomas Mann was a regular visitor, and made the Des Bains the setting for his story, Death In Venice. Quite properly, therefore, when Luchino Visconti was filming his version of the book in 1970, the cameras were set up around the Des Bains. Indeed, the hotel’s magnificent Art Nouveau reading room – decorated by Carlo Zen – is now called The Visconti Room, in the director’s honour.

I suspect that these great gentlemen must have admired, as I did, the sense of timeless elegance about this building. The carved wood, marble and crystal have aged and mellowed, but their quality still shines through. During my stay, I derived much pleasure from wandering its vast halls, wherein I could admire the details of the door handles and the style of the light fittings. Everything around me, on these little excursions, was very traditional and very charming.

My room, number 285, was on the second floor. To reach it I trundled along a wide corridor, straight and long – the sort of space, I thought, which would bring excitement to young folk on their way to the beach. In through my door was a proper hallway, with a fitted wardrobe (containing a personal safe). The bedroom was of a decent size, decorated in shades of yellow and cream and possessed of pieces of furniture in a vaguely Empire style. From the two windows I could look out at the Adriatic through the trees. All four table lamps, I was pleased to discover, could be dimmed. Grey marble set off the bathroom, which easily accommodated a tub of good size, two wash basins and a bidet. Double rooms can be had from 380 euros, although you will probable have to pay a lttle more to secure the sea view.

Hotel les Bains, Venice Lido, Italy Being the sort of fellow I am, I thought I ought to go into Venice, to the Cà Pesaro, to pay my respects to the lady painted by Mr Klimt. The journey itself turned out to be something of a treat – being, of course, as a treat must be, entirely free. The hotel has a little ’bus, which runs from the front entrance to a strict timetable. This whisked me in a couple of minutes to the boat pier at the Hotel Excelsior. There was waiting the launch, a rather swish machine of polished wood and white leather. Into this I was helped, for I am now somewhat rickety of frame.

Hotel les Bains, Venice Lido, Italy I have been to Venice many times, but to approach the Piazza San Marco by water – head on, as it were – still gives me a thrill. Can there be any more beautiful sight in the world? And one arrives knowing that there is so much more to La Serenissima than St Mark’s Square – enough magnificent art, indeed, for several lifetimes. Yet then I was doubly blessed. For, after a day with the crowds of sightseers, I was able to get back into the launch and be transported back to the quieter delights of the Lido.

These included my meals at the Hotel Des Bains. At one end of the building two large rooms – decorated in stucco and white in the French manner in the 1920s – are set aside for eating. The larger is for breakfast. Here I liked to go out through the glass doors onto the terrace – where, looking over the swimming pool, the garden and the distant, blue sea, I consumed from the buffet dishes of pineapple and strawberries, bowls of Rice Crispies and plates of bacon and baby tomatoes, all washed down with coffee from pots of white and gold porcelain. These breakings of the fast were both leisurely and satisfying.

Nor did my evening comestibles disappoint. Washed and scrubbed, with starched collar and linen suit, I sat at a round table in the restaurant, next to a statue of a young man with a lyre. As the sun dimmed, light came from a candle on my table and from the chandeliers of Murano crystal overhead. The food of chef Alberto Fol is straightforward and carefully prepared. (Expect to pay around 85 euros for four courses.) I remember a meal of prosciutto of wild boar with salad, bigoli pasta with duck ragout and vezzena cheese, supreme of guinea fowl with red onion and pepper sauce and millefeuille from the trolley. 2 nd maitre d’ Stefano Zorzan orchestrated the service with friendly efficiency.

Hotel les Bains, Venice Lido, Italy About 100 bottles are offered on the wine list. All, apart from the champagnes (Dom Perignon 1995 is 225 euros), are Italian and include some of the super Tuscans I so admire – like 1999 Ornellaia at 157 euros, 2001 Solaia at 163 euros and 2002 Sassicaia at 352 euros. My own drinking was more modest, and included a light pinot blanc from Tuscany with well-balanced acidity (Capsula Viola, Antinori, 2004 – 24 euros) and a local, medium-bodied red (Bardolino classico, La Cavalchina, 2002 – 17 euros).

Each morning I woke with a choice to make: to stay at the Lido for the sun and the beach, or to sail into Venice for the art and the history. That seems to me to be a pretty good definition of a civilized family holiday. And it is on offer to all of us at the very, very civilized Hotel Des Bains.

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