Palm Court
A courtyard in 1908
Three storeys of light, palms rising to the top of the frame.
Giovanni Sardi drew this space in 1908 as the Corte Moresca - an open Moorish courtyard, arches and dramatic staircases, the sky where the ceiling is now.
Guests crossed it on the way to the sea. It has been the middle of the hotel ever since.
Triple-height salon
In the 1960s Ignazio Gardella closed the court and turned it into a salon, one of the great architectural moments of the hotel.
Gardella understood light, scale and proportion better than almost anyone. The result is a room that feels monumental and welcoming at once.
Palm Court History
It was a meeting place for everyone. Churchill and Steinbeck. Garbo, Gable, Crawford, Cagney - all under the Excelsior's roof in 1932, when the hotel held the first Venice Film Festival on its own terrace.
A century of kings, writers and film stars have crossed this floor, most of them on the way to the beach.
The social heart of the hotel, to enjoy a coffee and sunrise over the Adriatic.
