A Summary History of the Palazzo Dandolo | Page 4

deserves being
examined from the novelty of the systems employed and from the
exquisite order and tidiness which everywhere reigns.
We will not describe the bedrooms and sitting rooms, except to say that
they have all been recently done up and richly furnished with the
utmost artistic taste and are all lit with electricity. Many of the
apartments have been preserved in the original style, especially the
Saloon of the Doges, No. 9, which with the adjoining rooms, Nos. 10,
11 and 12, all of which overlook the Riva degli Schiavoni and the
magnificent panorama already described.
The wines and the table are a great speciality of the Hotel Royal

Danieli, all being of the very highest order, and its dining rooms and
restaurant arranged with small and separate tables, have an unusual
character all their own.
The dining rooms are decorated in an entirely novel style and one that
is truly poetic. The great windows of ground glass are transformed into
eight lovely winter gardens of rare plants, which are reproduced in the
big mirrors which line the walls, and the electric light, which hangs in
delicate Venetian glass lily pendants round the ceiling, produces a most
charming and unusual effect.
The two great restaurant halls are furnished in pure style of the Empire,
for all the stuffs and decorations are copied from the best works that
treat of that period, and are among the richest and choicest of that
famous epoch.
Thus, by a series of ingenious combinations these two palaces, so
different from each other in many ways, blend themselves in one
harmonious and artistic whole, and in them are united the greatest
luxury with the utmost comfort.
[Illustration: SALON OF THE DOGES]
To give an idea of the whole we will imagine that a traveler is staying
in the apartment of the Doge--which recalls all the pomp and grandeur
of old Venice--to go to the breakfast-room and restaurant we will pass
through the great Sansovino ball-room, then through the Rose saloon,
by the side of which is the music-room (style Empire), and the gallery
of tapestry and majolica, and thus reaches the Empire decorated
restaurants which we have already described.
In the evening at dinner-time the traveler would, instead, descend by
successive steps, through a Renaissance vestibule, to the beautiful
winter garden dining-halls, which, especially when lit up by the soft
radiance of the electric lilies, makes a perfect fairy scene.
Round the ball-room on the first floor runs an uncovered loggia, from
whence one can look down into the court of honor, or Venetian Atrium,
in which of an evening characteristic concerts are frequently given.
From the first floor the great «scala d'oro» conducts one to the second
floor, where are the spacious concert-room and various handsome
suites of ancient and modern apartments.
To the honor of the proprietors who have succeeded one another, be it
said, that although from time to time certain works have been executed

in this historic palace to adapt it to its new use as a hotel, yet not only
have the staircases, the saloons and the various apartments been
preserved just as they were, but the artistic beauties and the historic
souvenirs have been carefully respected, the stuccoes and frescoes of
the sixteenth and seventeenth century have been spared, and the
portraits and heraldic shields of the Dandolos, the Bernardos and the
Mocenigos can still be admired to-day in their original positions.
Although the use to which this Palace, which once occupied so large a
place in the glories of the history of Venice, has been put during the
present century is very different from that which it was built, it has
always been kept most worthily, first by Danieli, then by his daughter
Alfonsina, the wife of Vespasiano Muzzarelli; then by his
granddaughter, Giuseppina Roux, and, last, by S.S. Genovesi and
Campi, so that it had the honor, which it still possesses, of being chosen
by Emperors, Kings, Princes and Ambassadors, and by great men of all
countries whose artistic travels bring them to this incomparable city, so
justly called the «Pearl of the Adriatic».
The delightful impression made on those who inhabit the Hotel Royal
Danieli has been expressed over and over again to their friends, and
they have often said to the proprietors that they have rather felt as if
visiting in the house of a friend, or in a princely mansion, than in an
hotel, even though in the greatest hotel in the world.
[Illustration: SANSOVINO HALL]
In this lovely palace the traveler feels at home. All is artistic and
poetical. No long passages, painted in imitation marble, cold and
draughty, and dreary! No long endless tables and big red velvet divans,
as in a cafe! No long rows of rooms in which the furniture is so