The special little world of Hotel Flora in Venice

The Hotel Flora is at the end of a small alley that is almost invisible among the bombastic signs of Calle Larga XXII Marzo. D&G, Ferragamo, Armani, Cucinelli, Gucci, Moncler, Chanel, they are all there. Yet right there lurks a special, secluded world. The small hotel founded sixty years ago is still run by the same Romanelli family. Now at the helm are Gioele, the third generation, and his wife Heiby who, despite their position, continue to work without conforming to trendy diktats, holding on tightly to their three stars in a surrounding of five-star luxury. Gioele, as creative as his painter father and photographer grandfather, has the gift of turning every stimulus into a cultural project for the hotel. When he came across Promemoria, a Turin-based group that creates historical archives for companies, he thought it would be a good time to bring order to the material accumulated over sixty years, a mountain of guest books, photos, handwritten accounts, furnishings, even a book by Sophie Calle, who in 1981, then unknown, created a unique photographic project in the guests' rooms in their absence.

Gioele e Heiby Romanelli nel giardino dell’Hotel Flora, in un angolo defilato di Venezia. L’hotel nel 2025 ha compiuto 60 anni.

La prima colazione all’Hotel Flora.

The creation of the archive was an experience similar to psychoanalysis that allowed the Romanellis to reconstruct a legacy, adopt it and make it the guide for the future. This led to the idea of an exhibition with the objects of memory and twelve illustrations specially created by Sarah Mazzetti inspired by the dedications in the guests' books. And it was also from those intensive workshops that the figure of the 'imaginative tourist' emerged, a sort of ideal guest of Hotel Flora and every place. A virtuous character that exists first and foremost in the relationship between guest and hotelier. On the one hand the guest eager for knowledge, on the other the hotelier who offers the cues for wonder. And in that encounter is triggered the mechanism of 'amazement' which, according to Gioele, not only escapes the boredom of everyday life but is the step towards a more authentic tourism.

"One cannot continue to wallow in the negative aspects of mass tourism. It exists, it is true, but it is a global problem, and you cannot solve it locally,' says Romanelli. 'We need to change the narrative. And precisely create opportunities for 'stupefaction'. For example, it is useless to focus on the crowd bath of certain moments in Venice. You have to look for perc

alternative bears, going against the tide, choosing the right times. And we Venetians can help our guests to do that'.

Una delle 40 camere dell’Hotel Flora, una diversa dall’altra (Beatrice Pilotto)

Casa Flora, l’appartamento di fianco all’hotel della famiglia Romanelli dove si svolgono i retreat culinari e presto le residenze d’artista. Qui si è svolta la mostra “Il turista immaginifico” e qui si possono vedere le illustrazioni di Sarah Mazzetti che ha tradotto in immagini le dediche più curiose degli ospiti. (Valentina Sommariva)

This is the meaning of the Inside Venice guide that Hotel Flora gives away at check-in: a folding map with places to stop and fountains to fill up water bottles (the water in Venice is very good). With this detail they have saved thousands of plastic bottles and guests feel they have contributed to a useful project. "Proactively hosting is a revolutionary gesture," explains Romanelli. "It takes courage to make yourself totally available to guests. This is an advantage of small hotels, with local owners. Big companies with funds behind them have other goals and, yes, maybe some enlightened general managers are there, but ours is another dimension, it doesn't follow protocols and we don't have to ask anyone's permission to experiment