Even by Venetian standards, the Hotel Metropole is steeped in history — this was once an orphanage where Vivaldi gave music lessons. More recently, though still decades ago, it was acquired by the Beggiato family, and remains a family-owned and -operated hotel, decorated with the owners’ collections of art and antiques. And while it’s been renovated to keep pace with the times, its style is deliciously decadent, and eclectic.

The Experimental Group has blossomed quickly from a word-of-mouth Parisian cocktail phenomenon to a full-fledged hospitality concern. If there ever were a city whose hotel scene needed an infusion of youthful cool, it’s Venice, whose bridges and canals are so thick with tourists you could be forgiven for wondering if there’s any nightlife culture here at all. That’s where Il Palazzo Experimental comes in.

Behind the postcard-perfect Venetian-Gothic exterior of this former convent is something else entirely: a thoroughly modern luxury boutique hotel. Not that you’ll think for so much as a moment that you’re anywhere other than Venice. Set at the mouth of the Grand Canal, with the lagoon on one side and narrow alleyways on the other, the scene surrounding the Centurion Palace is about as typically Venetian as it could possibly be.

Venice is a place that wears opulence well. And while Ca’ Bonfadini may hide itself away behind a relatively unassuming, if handsome, 18th-century façade, what’s inside is the kind of high elegance for which the city has become practically synonymous. Its location, right on the Cannaregio canal, offers both convenience and quiet in roughly equal measure; its interiors an ode to the city’s neoclassical period.

The Hotel Indigo Venice – Sant’Elena is named for the island that lies just across the bridge from the hotel, at the far end of the city proper. And it makes its home not in some purpose-built hotel building but in a 1930s convent, a short walk from the 11th-century Church of Sant’Elena — a perfect venue for a hotel that aims to offer an air of tranquil contemplation.

The Venice Venice Hotel, dedicated as it is to “postvenezianità” — post-Venetian-ness — finds itself in the 13th-century Byzantine-style Palazzo Ca’ da Mosto, overlooking the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge. Its owners, however, have their sights set squarely on the future, and take their inspiration from the avant-garde spirit that they feel has always been an integral part of Venetian life.

Nolinski Venezia is further proof that there’s no necessary tradeoff between high luxury and high fashion — in the right hands, a hotel is perfectly capable of delivering both. Nor does it shy away from the action. Nolinski Venezia is set on the Calle Larga XXII Marzo, in a stately building that once housed the city’s Chamber of Commerce, with high-end retailers like Ferragamo and Armani for neighbors.

It’s fitting that Aman would choose this as the setting for their first city hotel. Like many of their far-flung, impossibly photogenic locales, there’s a sense that Venice isn’t quite of this earth. Rather than build something modern, they’ve made use of a meticulously preserved Renaissance palace as a setting. Of course in Venice it couldn’t be any other way, but it’s a pleasure to see that they know when to leave well enough alone.

Not IQs, as in Intelligence Quotient — though you will indeed feel smart staying here — but i Qs, Italian for, well, “the Qs.” This is an annex, or perhaps more precisely a satellite property, belonging to Charming House DD.724, and its four exceedingly stylish suites stand about twenty minutes from the main hotel, close by to the Piazza San Marco, with views over the Rio del Mondo Nuovo.

The relationship between Splendid Venice, the hotel, and splendid Venice, the city, goes back a long time. An inn was first built on this site in the sixteenth century, and the property has been almost continuously in use as hotel since, although a 21st-century renovation eradicated any traces of mustiness. Can’t argue with the decision to keep the rosy façade with casement windows — splendid, indeed.

Venice is a magic city—the site of many a novel, love affair and Bellini cocktail, with pigeons, Canaletto style watery vistas, and alleyways and bridges that lead nowhere. In many ways, the only proper place to stay in Venice is a palace. And of all the palaces-turned-hotels in Venice, they say that the Hotel Gritti Palace is the most perfect.