Casa Dolce

We had to haul our bags over to Hotel Bella, then had one porter to help with four pieces of luggage. If more than one person is checking in and you have bags, the instructions should say to leave them at Casa and have one person walk over with everyone’s passports. I could have stayed with the kids and watched the luggage while the other person checked in. I gave it four stars because check-in happens elsewhere and you have to walk back to the Casa.

The staff member I spoke with before arriving was friendly, and the central location seemed like good value at €178 per night, especially since we booked just one week ahead after changing our plans. Those were the only good parts of the stay. The room itself looked impressive at first, with a huge chandelier and grand decor, and the building interior was lovely. But the smell in the stairwell was sickly sweet and chemical, and there were two air fresheners in the bathroom. The embroidered bedspreads had several stains, and there were red streaks on the wall beside the bed. While showering, I saw about a square foot of black mold on the wall. There was no bathroom exhaust fan, and Venice is humid, so I wasn’t surprised. We were only there for two nights, so I thought we could put up with it. A couple of days after we left, I noticed lots of bites in lines and clusters on the backs of both legs. I’d worn linen trousers for most of the trip, except in bed, and I recognize this pattern from an experience many years ago. I suspect bed bugs were in the room. Another review mentioned dead bugs squashed on the wall, and the chemical smell and red marks made me think of that too. The bites can take days to show up, and not everyone reacts, which may explain why my daughters weren’t bitten. I’m glad I noticed before the trip ended, so we could avoid bringing anything home. We had to check in at Hotel San Luca, said to be a five-minute walk away. With suitcases or young children, it took more like ten minutes because of steps over the canals and crowded narrow streets. Once we reached Casa Dolce, we were led to the stairs to our room. The place would have been worth the walk if the room had been decent.

The room could use some updating, but it was clean and the service was good. The location was perfect, and I had a very good stay overall.

The room was hot, and the air conditioning didn’t work, so I had to leave a window propped open and got eaten alive by mosquitoes. There was mold beneath the windows, and a large bell rang every 15 minutes. Getting to the room meant passing through three doors, and we had to carry around big keys. The place was a dump and didn’t look like the online photos. Check-in was half a mile away. The person who walked us to the room didn’t offer to help with our luggage, even though we had to cross three stair bridges, and he walked so quickly I had to ask him to slow down. I don’t recommend it.