Stay There Sunday – Venice SPG Hotel Europa

We Love SPG

I’ll first say that we’re unabashed fans of SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) hotels that include Westin, W Hotels, Sheraton, Aloft, and several luxury hotels and one of a kind hotels. They are at the style and level of quality and service we prefer and they seem to have hotels in just the right location for the cities we visit. They don’t have a hotel in every city, but for the most part we have found them where we need them. Their membership points system is annually rated one of the best, if not the best, points program. It doesn’t hurt that we can funnel…err…pass through some of our business expenses through the credit card and get lots of points. We’ll talk more about their points system in a later blog.

Venice SPG Hotel Europa Regina

One of the luxury hotels they have in Venice is the Hotel Europa Regina situated right on the Grand Canal where it meets the lagoon, across from Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, and less than a 5 minute stroll to Piazza San Marco. Besides being ideally situated, the hotel is beautiful, the rooms are wonderful, and the outdoor dining and lounge areas could not be more relaxing. There are several outdoor areas from which you can watch all of the activity on the canal and take in many of the sights with a relaxing drink and munchies.

After a long day visiting the city, we arrived back at our hotel. After freshening up in our room, we made our way down to the outdoor covered bar/lounge to relax before heading out for dinner. We watched the vaporettos, water taxis, and gondolas criss-cross the water behind our red and white colored spiraled pylons in the water in what seemed to be almost like a ballet, each knowing his or her location and where the others had been and were headed. With a beautiful sunset, the Church di San Giorgio Maggiore (complete with clock tower), and the basilica as our view, it seemed we had walked into a dream. I felt like I was dropped into the Merchant of Venice. As we enjoyed a cocktail and some complimentary finger food (I’ve never eaten so many delicious olives, spiced nuts, and tricolored chips) a storm slowly rolled in over the city. As the rain began to fall it quickly changed to a thunderstorm and we watched everyone on the water quickly dash for cover while we were warm and dry under the roof of the lounge. It was a spectacular storm made all the more enjoyable by our surroundings.

We decided to stay at the hotel to have a bite to eat, since venturing out surely meant being drenched and sitting indoors with a view that could not possibly have been better than the one we had been enjoying for a few hours. We had a deliciously simple caprese salad and angel hair spaghetti with tomatoes and basil with warm fresh bread. Ahhhh…..heaven on earth. It’s nice when simple things can be so enjoyed even on a wet night in Venice.