If you want to experience real, living Venice without spending an absolute fortune I cannot imagine there can be anywhere more beautiful and central than Ca' Spencer.
The apartment is near the Palazzo Fortuny, a short walk to San Marco and a hop to the Rialto Market, yet it feels far way away from the tourists. Designed and decorated in a stunning Rococo style by the owners, film directors Chris and Caroline Spencer, the flat is beautiful and comfortable. One senses the generosity and imagination of the owners in the attention paid to every small detail from the kitchen cutlery, books about Venice, recipe books, lists of recommended secret Venice places and even the available tv channels and videos.
It is rare to be able to sit outside in solitude anywhere in Venice,so to have breakfast or dinner on the altana, or roof terrace, gazing across the terracotta roof tiles and up at the crooked campanelli, with not another human being in sight is a unique and enchanting experience.
Staying in an apartment and cooking for yourself is far the best way to stay in the city because you can avoid the often sub-standard and usually over-priced restaurant food. Instead enter into the life of the city by going to where the Venetians buy their food, either in the excellent nearby supermarket or the Rialto Market where scents of herbs combine with the aroma of roasting coffee; purple velvet aubergines and rich green spinach compete for attention with flashes of silver from the fish stalls, while little dogs gaze longingly at the sausages on the butcher’s counter. But be prepared to wait your turn as the stall holder discusses at length, with every customer ahead of you, food, wine, the weather, politics and life.
Everyone knows everyone and, long before Shylock asked “What news on the Rialto?”, Venetians have gone there to gossip and catch up on what’s happening behind those palazzo walls and in the mazes and alleyways make up their extraordinary city. Forget the overpriced cafes of San Marco and Palazzo Ducale. The Rialto market, rich as a Titian painting, enchanting as a Vivaldi concerto and as seductive as Casanova, is the beating heart of Venice.
If I've gone a little di troppo with my review its because I adore Ca' Spencer. I've stayed there three times and want to go back again. ASAP.