One of the boarding houses around St Mark’s Square in the nineteenth century and in the same family for over fifty years, this graceful building on the Riva degli Schiavoni dates from the sixteenth century and enjoys a splendid view of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. The German poet Joseph Viktor Von Scheffel stayed here in 1853 and here the writer and literary critic Henry James wrote his “Portrait of a Lady” in 1881. The Venetian-style rooms with original furnishings give onto the lagoon