Hotel Gritti Palace — Venice, Italy
About Hotel Gritti Palace
Ernest Hemingway is the marquee literary connection. He stayed there extensively in the late 1940s and early '50s and wrote portions of his novel Across the River and into the Trees during those extended stays. He was also known for antics there: he reportedly staged a midnight game of baseball in the hotel's lobby. W. Somerset Maugham is the other major literary namesake. He was a longtime devotee of the hotel (he used to say "At The Gritti you are not a guest, but a friend"). The Somerset Maugham Royal Suite, roughly 81 square meters on the first piano nobile, is dotted with antique furniture, objets d'art, and photos and portraits of the writer. And John Ruskin was a Victorian art critic and writer, who, like Hemingway and Maugham, used the traghetto crossing point just outside the hotel. These three suites emerged from an 18-month refurbishment (part of a broader $55 million renovat…
Literary significance
The hotel has 21 suites, no two alike, several explicitly inspired by past guests: the Hemingway Suite, Somerset Maugham Royal Suite, and a Ruskin-named suite, plus others tied to Venetian landmarks and festivals (Redentore Terrazza, Punta della Dogana, etc.). Beyond the labeled/preserved furniture, there's Hemingway's documented chair, a portrait of Doge Gritti in the lobby, photos and portraits of Maugham in his suite, and an on-site "Explorer's Library" featuring travel curiosities, antiques, and rare books tied to the hotel's literary guests.
Authors
Location
Campo Santa Maria del Giglio 2467, 30124 Venice, Italy