The Place
The longer we lingered at the Quattro Fontane, the more it grew on us. At first the 150-year-old mock Tyrolean building on the Venice Lido struck us as rather gloomy and suburban, but we soon warmed to the charmingly decorated reception rooms, particularly the salone and the little writing room. Mementos of the owners´ travels are dotted around the hotel on walls and shelves carved wooden figures, painted shells, model ships, porcelain, stamps. In the baronial dining room, with its cavernous hearth and bold red chairs, service was directed with courtesy by the long-serving head waiter. In warm weather you can eat on the wide tree-filled terrace that encircles the hotel.
The bedrooms in the main building have plenty of character and are individually decorated with an assortment of furniture, pictures and fabrics, comfortable if not luxurious. Those in the 1960s annexe are more streamlined, but here too each is different, attractive and cosy, with gaily tiled bathrooms. A dignified hotel, elderly now, but still spruce, and in our opinion the best on the Lido.