Pensione Accademia Venice

The Salmaso family is glad to welcome you to the charming Pensione Accademia, the perfect location for your pleasant stay in Venice. The villa, part of the Historical Places of Italy group, surrounds You in the atmosphere of a 17th century ancient Venetian palace, in the full splendor of the “Serenissima”.

Villa “Maravege”, for “marvels”: an atmosphere of Venetian décor sets the stage to the most modern comforts and technologies, so as to lull You in a suggestive and memorable stay. The hotel is well-known for its lush gardens and for its location: in the heart of the historic center and right next to the Grand Canal, the hotel is cherished by art lovers for its proximity with museums and for its calm and relaxing setting.

The rooms, different one another, are furnished in Venetian style and overlook the canal or the inner gardens, where You can spend quiet moments savoring an aperitif. The Pensione Accademia Hotel is located in the heart of the Dorsoduro district, a short walk from Accademia Bridge. In a strategic position, from the hotel You can reach Piazza San Marco by a pleasant walk.

From the near water-bus stops you can reach the major landmarks of the city, in addition to the main terminals. The hotel also has a private dock for water taxis, a water gate for an arrival in comfort and tranquility.

ROOMS & SUITES
The rooms, decorated in Venetian style and different one another in terms of personality and features, face the canal or the gardens, in a unique setting. Every room is equipped with an accurate courtesy kit, an efficient wi-fi connection and air conditioning, in addition to a technological comfort which is the result of renewed facilities and advanced home automation, with a “smart” and adjustable system of air conditioning.

We offer two different types of double rooms – Classic and Superior – in order to fulfil any request. Our Junior Suites consist of a double bedroom and a separate living room which, if needed, can be turned in a family room.

All rooms are “non smoking”, to guarantee their freshness. Upon request, we can also provide hypoallergenic rooms and a baby cot. The hotel offers a full continental breakfast, served in our garden during summer.

It’s possible to choose from a selection of fresh, nutritious and quality products, with special care for Guests with food intolerances. Our hotel is equipped to accommodate small-medium sized dogs. We’ll try to assign You a room on our ground floor in the private garden and we’ll ask to respect the following conditions.

The dog may be left in the room unattended only if You are in the hotel and it won’t be allowed in the breakfast room; a leash is required in the common areas; the dog cannot sleep on the room bed but we’ll be glad to set its own dog’s bed with bowls; should bowls be used, they must be kept clean after the use.

JUNIOR SUITE GARDEN VIEW
Our Junior Suites are composed of one bedroom and a sitting room that on request can be converted into a bedroom. The rooms are decorated in the typical Venetian style, and are unique. Junior Suites have beautiful views out over tour well-maintained private gardens.

Each room is equipped with a private bathroom with WC, shower or bath-tub, complimentary toiletries and hair-dryer, satellite TV, mini-bar, wi-fi, USB socket, kettle with coffee and tea, air conditioning or heating (based on the season), and complimentary toiletries. rooms are “no-smoking”.

SERVICES
A Comfort designed solely for you; an old-world charm, friendly and cutting-edge at the same time, as result of a project that combines tradition with innovation, tranquility to the most advanced home automation technology, with emphasis on energy optimization.

Our goal is to make you feel welcome with cares that will make your stay relaxing and memorable. The Pensione Accademia Staff, a close-knit team, will always make you feel at ease, at full disposal to meet your requests with professionalism and passion.
We take care of our guests.

The continental buffet breakfast ioffers a wide selection of quality products, with particolar care for guests with food intolerances. In summer you can enjoy it in our garden overlooking the canal.

Our bar invites you to enjoy a light lunch, a simple snack or a drink: enjoy the simplicity of our dishes. In the cozy bar area you will always find our complimentary drink, accompanied by fresh fruit and the finger-food of the day.

ACCESSIBILITY
Although not being equipped with an elevator, Pensione Accademia features some rooms on the ground floor, with different degrees of accessibility: as for requests for wheelchair and walker, please check availability for such rooms when booking.

We are always glad to help carrying the bags in the hotel. We inform you that from the nearest public water bus stops (Accademia, Zattere and Ca’ Rezzonico) there’s at least one bridge with steps to cross.

We are also very glad to have contributed to Gondolas 4 All, the first initiative to make gondolas accessible and barrier free to people with motion disabilities, thanks to a new jetty in Piazzale Roma. Disabled access (ground floor rooms – please advise when booking)

A TYPICAL ITALIAN HISTORY
Raffaele and Giuseppe Salmaso came to Venice together in 1951. Separated from their families those were hard years of sacrifice for them that would become the foundation of a tradition preserved even today. A few years later they were joined by their wives, Tosca and Savina.

Together they transformed the small “locale” of “ombra and cicchetti” (wine bar with traditional Venetian snacks) into the renowned Ristorante da Raffaele known by Venetians and tourists alike. Thus Venice became their adopted city.

The passion they shared for welcoming guests into a place that had high quality in their personnel as well as in the food and drink they served was passed on to their children: Renato, Giovanna, Stefania and Andrea.

Today all of them run their own businesses in person: Hotel Ala, is centrally located; Locanda de la Spada, on the Grand Canal; Restaurant da Raffaele, overlooking a typical Venetian canal; and Pensione Accademia with its fascinating and suggestive surroundings.

HISTORY
Pensione Accademia was born a patrician residence and transformed into a Russian Embassy at the end of the Venetian Republic; it became a hotel in 1948. Over the years, the Salmaso family perceived the historical and artistic value of the structure and made it one of the most enchanting hotels in Venice.

In 2018, given the importance of the structure from a cultural and historical point of view, the hotel has been recognized by the Association of Historical Places of Italy. Russian writer Josif Brodsky, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987, was a frequent Guest of Pensione Accademia back in the ’70s. Nowadays the hotel still attracts many guests and passerbies from Russia, seeking the lands of their beloved poet.

“Villa Maravege” hosted the Russian embassy between 1783 and 1797, during the last years of the Serenissima Republic; after the fall of the Venetian State, the palace continued to be bond with Russia, by becoming a consulate, certainly in the period between the two world wars, but, it is said, also during XIX century.

Brodsky’s poems can help us figure out what Pensione Accademia represented during war times: “In the hall, three elderly women are knitting.” The women, in fact, came here to knit socks, thus making the seventeenth-century palace a real haven and home.

Pensione Accademia was among the first small hotels to be built in the historic town of Venice; “small” since at that time they represented the only homely alternative to the luxury Grand Hotels, typical of a touristic tradition that preceded the 1970s boom.

Almost an ancestor of the current B&Bs, with all the proportions of the case due to the evolution of tourism and the types of accommodation in recent decades.

The hotel soon became a destination cherished by British Lords. Pensione Accademia was honored to welcome the Dukes of Kent, Queen Elizabeth II cousins; writer Primo Levi, film directors Marcello Mastroianni and Mario Monicelli, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Tobias Owen and musician David Gilmour; not to mention other Italian famous people, albeit in different areas, such as actress and comedian Luciana Litizzetto and former Prime Minister Mario Monti. More recently, in 2018, Pensione Accademia welcomed also the King and Queen of Belgium.

Some guests believe that the hotel and its terrace have been the setting of the famous movie “Summertime “ with Katherine Hepburn.Pensione Accademia and its gardens are also a cherished setting by great movie directors.

The gate and the front terrace also appear in a short scene of the film “The Two Lives of Mattia Pascal” by Marcello Mastroianni; in 2016 Fondamenta Bollani and part of the courtyard hosted the shooting of Donna Leon’s TV serie “Commissario Brunetti”.

We can also enjoy an aerial shooting of villa and terrace in the movie Italian Job (2003) during the boats chasing scene. Even from the structural and architectural point of view, Pension Academy reserves many surprises.

The hotel is among the few in Venice to be endowed of two flourishing gardens, one on the front, between the façade and the canal of San Trovaso, where customers can have breakfast outdoors; the one in the back, ornate with flowers and plants, where Guests can relax.

The two marble columns of the current breakfast room are a historical relic: centuries ago they adorned the loggia of San Marco bell tower, built by the famous architect of the Renaissance, Sansovino.

Following the collapse of the landmark of Venice in 1902, it is said that the two intact columns were bought at the auction and re-used to decorate the breakfast room of Pensione Accademia. The Salmaso Family made Pensione Accademia an authentic jewel of Venice.

MARAVAGE: WONDERS BETWEEN HISTORY & LEGEND
According to Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt, “There are three magical and hidden places in Venice (…) The second is near the bridge “Ponte de le Maravegie”.When the Venetians are tired of the authorities, they reach such secret places, open the doors that at the bottom of those courtyards, entering beautiful places and other stories… ”

May the courtyard of Pensione Accademia be one of these hidden magical places? The legend tells about seven sisters who lived near the bridge: six were beautiful, one was rather ugly. Their house was frequented by a handsome boatman who fell ill and could no longer participate in the regatta.

He attributed the disease to a spell from the seventh sister, so he seeked for retaliation: but he found out that the girl had not done any evil jinx, she was in fact secretly in love with him and was praying to die in his place. Eventually the two got married and the young man was able to heal and win the race. Since then the area has been called “Delle Maravegie”.

Rooms: 27

Price: from 89 EUR per night

Source: www.pensioneaccademia.it