Ruzzini Palace Hotel

Forty rooms inside a restored 16th-century palazzo on Campo Santa Maria Formosa, Ruzzini Palace Hotel keeps original frescoed ceilings and terrazzo floors alongside air-conditioned, soundproofed rooms with minibars and laptop safes.

The campo itself is one of Venice's larger open squares — children play football where Casanova once lived two addresses over — and the vaporetto stop at Rialto is an eight-minute walk east. Rooms on the upper floors face either the square's wellhead or the narrow rio behind; canal-side rooms carry more noise at dawn.

A bar runs happy hour in the frescoed common lounge, and room service covers late arrivals. The concierge desk books gondola tours and arranges water-taxi transfers directly from the hotel's private entrance on the campo.