During winter’s aqua alta, or high-water season, Venetians forgo
designer shoes and instead slosh around their city in rubber boots. Sirens warn
residents and visitors to move to higher ground as rising Adriatic tides creep
into the streets, often for a few hours each day. Francesca Bortolotto Possati,
owner of the Bauer Il Palazzo hotel, serves as a board member of Save Venice, an
organization formed in response to floods in 1966, when tides covered Piazza San
Marco with a record 4 feet of water. Possati also works diligently to preserve
her family’s legacy, the Bauer, located a short walk from the piazza at the end
of the Grand Canal.
 After living in Texas, Michigan, and New York, and earning two
English degrees and a pilot’s license, Possati returned to Italy in 1997 to run
her grandfather’s Bauer-Grünwald hotel. She split the 18th-century palace into
two smaller properties, L’ Hotel and Il Palazzo, and invested $38 million to
restore both. Il Palazzo emerged as a boutique hotel fit for the doges, with
antique chests and chairs, gilt mirrors, stucco ceilings, and the finest
Venetian fabrics, many of which Possati selected herself.
Possati also added amenities such as a solar/electric boat that
shuttles guests through the canals. The expansive seventh-floor terrace at Il
Palazzo’s breakfast restaurant, Settimo Cielo (Seventh Heaven), affords views
over the canals to the top of the Campanile. At the base of the 324-foot-high
bell tower sits Piazza San Marco, which, depending on the season, is usually
covered either with pigeons or with water. If the latter, let the sirens signal
the right time for another flute of Champagne, or for a long winter’s nap in Il
Palazzo’s Royal Suite.
 LOCATION At the end of the Grand Canal, a two-minute walk from Piazza San
Marco. ACCOMMODATIONS Owner Francesca Bortolotto Possati decorated the 44 rooms and 38
suites with tapestry wall hangings, antique furnishings, and Murano glass
chandeliers. Several of the accommodations have terraces, and most afford views
of the canal. FACILITIES A fitness room and health spa, and a rooftop Jacuzzi with views of Venice and the
lagoon. DINING The canal-level De Pisis for gourmet dinners, the high-and-dry
Settimo Cielo terrace for breakfast, and Bar Foyer for cocktails and grappas. CONCIERGE RECOMMENDS Private jet service to Verona for an opera at the Arena, the
third-largest surviving Roman amphitheater. RATES Double rooms from about $1,055, the Royal Suite from $8,210.
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