Quite simply, our accommodation in Venice was fantastic. The Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli is such a great place to stay – it isn’t fancy, it isn’t a hostel but in my opinion, it is a great option in Venice where accommodation can be so expensive. The history of the building is amazing and there are plenty of books and artefacts displayed around the place that celebrate this. Staying here, we also learnt a lot about Saint Luigi Orione (Don Orione) as well!
Our room was beautiful – as in beautifully sparse. I loved it! It was absolutely spotless, with plenty of space and allowed us to really feel like we were in a different country! Bill found it a bit disconcerting to have no TV or radio – he seems to like them on for ‘background’ noise. Thankfully, we had bought a small travel speaker. At night I would plug in my iPhone to the speaker so we could have some soft background music while we were reading.
Even with the lack of TV or radio, it was easy to relax and rejuvenate after a busy day. The room had shutters so we would keep the windows open at night and that would allow our room to be comfortably cool. At 7am we would be woken by the bells of the church next door, Santa Maria del Rosario. You can listen to them here –
The bells would also ring at noon and at 8pm. Church bells ringing is one of my favourite aspects of visiting Italy. I can never get enough of them.. even at 7am!
Here is a view of the church from afar, our accommodation was located at the back of it.
Here is our room –
View from our window –
We had a great breakfast each morning that was included in our stay. Rolls, jam, pastries, juice, cereal – it was the perfect way to get a head start on the day
The hallways has various commmon areas, shared book cases etc –
Downstairs area –
I would not hesitate to stay here again – it would be first on my list. The location is amazing on a beautiful square (Campo Sant’Agnese) and close to the Accademia and Zattere vaporetto stops. It is in a lovely quiet area that was still close to everything. We had restaurants and gelato nearby and just a few steps away was the magnificent Santa Maria del Rosario. It couldn’t have been better!
