Where do Hollywood folks stay, eat, shop and find art in Venice during festival season?
Here are highlights and tops, compiled by THR.
The St. Regis Venice
San Marco 2159, 30124 Venice
stregisvenice.com
Spread across five interconnected palaces on the Grand Canal, The St. Regis Venice offers 124 rooms, 39 suites and a private pier. The famed St. Regis Butler Service includes garment pressing, packing and unpacking, while 24-hour room service and select suites with private terraces are festival necessities. Gio’s serves chef Giuseppe Ricci’s Puglia-to-Veneto menu, while Arts Bar translates work by Banksy and Jeff Koons into cocktails served in custom Berengo glassware. An in-house art exhibition curated by Marta Cereda, Komorebi pairs six contemporary artists, including Joan Jonas and Marinella Senatore, with bespoke Murano pieces created with Berengo Studio; it remains on view through April 30, 2027.
The Gritti Terrace at The Gritti Palace
Campo Santa Maria del Giglio 2467, 30124 Venice
The Gritti Palace dining
Set directly above the Grand Canal, The Gritti Terrace faces the domes of Santa Maria della Salute and serves lunch daily from April through October. A long afternoon in this picturesque location confirms this table works best without a hard out. The palace has hosted generations of actors and filmmakers, including Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and remains built for industry reconnaissance: major meetups, discreet conversations and a steady view of who is arriving by boat.
Piedàterre
S. Polo 60, Rialto, 30125 Venice; San Marco 2806, Campo Santo Stefano, 30124 Venice
piedaterrevenezia.com
Venice is hard on footwear, making Piedàterre’s Venetian friulane an essential part of your festival strategy. The company has made its velvet, silk and canvas flats since 1952, with slip-on, backless and Mary Jane versions that handle bridges and still work for dinner. The film connection comes built in: co-owner Stuart Parr is a producer, art collector and luxury executive. Keira Knightley gave the local style celebrity currency this spring when she was photographed walking in Venice in velvet Mary Janes.
Glasstress 2026
Ca’ Tron, Santa Croce 1957, 30135 Venice; Fondazione Berengo Art Space, Campiello della Pescheria 4, 30141 Murano
berengo.com
At Glasstress 2026, Murano glass becomes something far grander than a chandelier. More than 50 artists worked with the island’s master glassmakers, including Marina Abramović, Ai Weiwei, Judy Chicago, Paul McCarthy, Jaume Plensa and Chiharu Shiota. The showstopper is Koen Vanmechelen’s nearly 16-foot-tall I Never Lost Paradise, where glass serpents coil around a bronze human bone. More than 20 participants are making their Glasstress debuts, many working with glass for the first time, across sculpture, performance, design and immersive installation. It runs through Nov. 22.
Homo Faber 2026: An Island of Light
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, 30124 Venice
homofaber.com
Running Sept. 1-30, Homo Faber 2026: An Island of Light transforms the Fondazione Giorgio Cini into a luminous archipelago under the artistic direction of Es Devlin. Inspired by the Venetian lagoon, Devlin has organized the exhibition as a journey through 15 installations. Water, mirrors, moving elements and carefully directed light frame the artisans’ finished objects while revealing their tools, materials and working processes. The exhibition includes more than 700 objects by more than 500 artisans from over 70 countries. Devlin’s entertainment credentials include Olympic ceremonies and Super Bowl halftime shows; her Nevada Ark appeared during U2’s 2023 opening of Sphere in Las Vegas.
