Danieli, Venezia, A Four Seasons Hotel returns to Riva degli Schiavoni with 120 restored rooms across three connected palaces, a rooftop restaurant from chef Adriano Rausa and a spa arriving later this year.
The most famous hotel address in Venice is taking guests again. Danieli, Venezia, A Four Seasons Hotel has reopened after a restoration that kept the property dark for more than three years.
This is not a rebrand with new signage. It is a full restoration of three connected palaces on the Riva degli Schiavoni, a few minutes on foot from St. Mark’s Square and the Doge’s Palace. The oldest of them, Palazzo Dandolo, dates to the late 15th century and became a hotel in 1822 under Giuseppe Dal Niel, whose nickname gave the place its name. Palazzo Casa Nuova followed in the 19th century, and Palazzo Danieli Excelsior was added in 1950. Byron, Balzac, Dickens and Proust all stayed here – a guest list few hotels anywhere can match.
French designer Pierre-Yves Rochon, who has handled several landmark Four Seasons properties in Europe, led the interiors. The material list reads as a summary of Venetian craft: Murano glass, produced on the lagoon since the 13th century, alongside Rubelli fabrics, woven in the city since 1889, and Italian marbles set against a palette drawn from Venice itself. In the lobby, the hand-painted gilded ceiling, a quatrefoil pattern on deep azure, has been fully restored along with the grand staircase and columns.
The hotel opened with 120 rooms and suites. A second phase completing the restoration of Palazzo Danieli Excelsior will bring the total to 168 in 2027. Four Seasons describes rooms where the lagoon appears “in true theatrical fashion, with curtains parting like those of a grand theatre to unveil the view beyond.”
Dining centres on Terrazza Danieli, the rooftop restaurant, where executive chef Adriano Rausa is serving a contemporary reading of Italian cooking with Venetian inflection and several dishes finished tableside. The view takes in San Giorgio Maggiore across the water. Downstairs, Bar Dandolo handles cocktails and afternoon tea inside the restored palazzo, and an outdoor terrace bar covers aperitivo hour on the lagoon. The Danieli Spa follows later this year with three treatment rooms including a couples’ suite, a sauna and a hammam.
“We are delighted to welcome guests back to one of Venice’s most iconic addresses, where the hotel’s extraordinary heritage is reimagined through the legendary hospitality of Four Seasons,” said general manager Christian Zandonella.
Rainer Stampfer, Four Seasons’ president of global operations, hotels and resorts, framed it as a portfolio moment. “With the reopening of the iconic Danieli, Venezia, a Four Seasons Hotel, our fourth property in a spectacular portfolio in Italy, we usher in a new chapter in this renowned palace’s history,” he said.
Venice has been rebuilding its top tier for two years now, and the Orient Express Venezia opened in a 15th-century palazzo earlier this year. The city’s luxury inventory is deeper than it has been in a generation.