Review: Palazzo Cristo, Venice hotel review

Paris-based interior designers Anna Covre and Frédéric Tubau have done an inspired job renovating this 16th-century house on Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo in the Castello, a neighbourhood still thriving with Venetian families and local life. Following an initial restoration of what was supposed to be their second home, the pair got the opportunity to buy an additional floor in the building and create the kind of turbo-slick, ultra-smart, bells-and-whistles apartments not seen before in the lagoon. The original exposed timber beams have been repaired, Carrara marble and travertine installed, oak parquet flooring and bespoke lighting fitted and canopy beds and flock velvet armchairs placed just so. The pared-back palette is a million miles from the usual gilded ceilings and Murano-glass extravagance.