August 26, 2026 | VOL 19
the NEW ERA of a 600-YEAR-OLD PALAZZO
words Onur Basturk
photos Giulio Ghirardi (Courtesy of Orient Express Venezia)
With a history spanning six centuries, Palazzo Donà Giovannelli has returned as Orient Express Venezia, reimagined by architect and interior designer Aline Asmar d’Amman. Following the opening of Orient Express La Minerva in Rome and the launch of the La Dolce Vita Orient Express train in 2025, the project signals a new chapter for the brand in Italy. Rather than restoring the Venetian palazzo as a monument frozen in time, Asmar d’Amman approached it as a living structure shaped by memory, craftsmanship, and contemporary energy. Throughout the eight-year transformation, her intention was for guests to experience the Palazzo with a cinematic sense of progression.
Orient Express carries a unique mythology of travel. Where did you begin when translating that legacy into a physical space?
A world of wonders unfolds at the evocation of the Orient Express. It carries a sense of glamour and sophistication, the very best of the art of travel and a certain mystique of exceptional journeys rooted in the golden age. Here, ritual and movement shape a romantic idea of travel as a passage, crafted through deeply thoughtful design and meticulous attention to detail. Throughout this creative journey, the Orient Express Hotel at Palazzo Dona Giovannelli became a dialogue between two worlds: the Palazzo’s historical legacy, a 15th-century Venetian crown jewel bringing permanence, intimacy, and memory, and Orient Express introducing movement, glamour, and the romance of travel.
Keeping both worlds in dialogue rather than blending them, I immersed myself in each and tried to create a passionate dialogue between two strong identities. References to the golden age of travel are woven in with subtle precision: travel trunks appear as bedside tables, while grand interior architecture is treated as wonder cabinets, underlined with wood marquetry, brass details, and etched mirrors that capture the soul of the palazzo’s historical features in reflection. In more contemporary rooms, a 1930s atmosphere quietly permeates the space through lacquered woods, refined finishes, and original antique chairs by Paul Follot flanking chess tables with Murano glass checkered plateaux. Everywhere, from the Piano Nobile’s ornate salons to the more contemporary spaces, bespoke drink cabinets invite interaction, opening like curated cases designed to spark curiosity and engagement, reinforcing the journey of discovery.
At Orient Express Palazzo Dona Giovannelli, there is always this tension between stillness and movement, intimate and grand, past and present, which defines the essence of its legendary art of travel imagined as a theatrical voyage through Venice.
OVER THE LAST EIGHT YEARS, I MOVED THROUGH EPOCHS AND ERAS, UNCOVERING STORIES EMBEDDED IN WORN SURFACES AND CEILING FRESCOES, EACH LAYER CARRYING ITS OWN MEMORY
This project unfolded over nearly eight years. How did that extended timeline shape your design decisions? How did your initial vision evolve over time?
Over the last eight years, I moved through epochs and eras, listening closely, revealing and unearthing every story, from the worn surfaces beneath our hands to the frescoes on the ceilings, each layer carrying its own memory. The restoration of Palazzo Dona Giovannelli, home to the Orient Express Venezia hotel, became a true labour of love, requiring rare interventions, from drying the palazzo’s foundations and building a dam around the façade walls, to the careful removal and treatment of each stone on the walls and floors. It became a revelation of how closely architecture and environment are bound together in Venice.
Over nearly a decade, hundreds of specialised artisans worked across fresco restoration, sculpture, gilding, and woodwork. Young artisans, joinery makers, metal specialists, craftsmen mastering leather cladding and terrazzo floors, as well as highly skilled marble makers, all joined in a communal gesture shaped by devotion and artistry. Behind every perfect detail, there are thousands of hours spent mending beauty.
During the process, hidden layers of history were uncovered and naturally integrated into the evolving narrative of the space. Beyond a monument to history, I see the Orient Express Venezia at Palazzo Dona Giovannelli as a living story, where the past continuously shapes the future. Fragments of original mouldings appear within contemporary rooms, reflected in etched mirrors and varnished woods, in a continuous dialogue between heritage and modernity. Pieces once hidden or damaged are reintroduced with grace, allowing the story of the palazzo to remain visible in conversation with architectural nowness.
This unfolding deeply shaped my design decisions. Rather than shifting my vision, the discovery of the Palazzo’s many layers deepened it into a more intimate dialogue with its history. My approach is never nostalgic about the past but always in conversation with it.
You describe the transformation as a “theatrical sequence of wonders.” How did you translate this idea into spatial terms?
I wanted guests to experience the palazzo as a cinematic progression, where layers of history gradually reveal themselves through surfaces, objects, and space. This is the essence of Venice: mystery, drama, and celebration set between stone and water, movement and eternity.
Guests move through the Palazzo like protagonists within a story, encountering fragments of history, traces of the lives that shaped the space, and moments of unexpected beauty. Here, the walls are always speaking.
The Palazzo was once home to noble Venetian families, from the Duke of Urbino to the Donà and Giovanelli families, and hosted grand occasions such as the wedding of the Duke of Urbino’s son to Princess Vittoria Farnese in the 16th century. Centuries later, its Piano Nobile welcomed scholars from across Europe, continuing its role as a place of exchange. I wanted this spirit to remain perceptible today through the architecture, curated art, and a sense of lived-in elegance and intimacy.
VENICE INSPIRES ME AS A MEETING POINT BETWEEN EAST AND WEST — A DUALITY ALREADY EMBEDDED WITHIN THE PALAZZO ITSELF
Venice has long been a gateway between East and West. How did this dual identity shape your design approach?
Venice deeply inspires me as a meeting point between East and West. Born in Beirut, I feel a personal connection to the city’s layered cultural identity and recognise many correspondences between Venetian architecture and my own heritage. I never experienced the Serenissima as foreign, but with a sense of familiarity, as if returning to a source of inspiration. That duality already exists within the palazzo itself. The neo-Gothic staircase by Gian Battista Meduna reveals an architectural language where Gothic forms meet arabesque influences, geometric ornamentation, frescoes, and luminous stained glass — traces of Venice’s long history of exchange and movement. Crowned by a celestial vault, the octagonal staircase leads into spaces like the Sala della Cultura, shaped by ideas, encounters, and cultural dialogue.
Here, Venice expresses itself as it always has: a cosmopolitan world where East and West coexist naturally. Lapis lazuli tones, Italian marbles, vintage furniture, and contemporary bespoke design come together like a layered memory of a grand tour, balancing richness, sensuality, and restraint.
The idea of the “Lost Colors of Venice” plays a key role. How did this concept shape the material and colour palette?
The “Lost Colors of Venice” became central to my approach to the renovation. Inspired by 16th-century pigments and poetic lore, these are not vanished colours, but rediscovered ones — faded fragments of myth and memory brought into the present with a contemporary sensibility.
The first time I entered Palazzo Dona Giovannelli, I was struck by these living colours spread across its historical walls and surfaces. Patinas washed by time became both my guide and inspiration, informing everything from stone and marble selections to moiré fabrics, velvets, and material accents. This feeling culminates in the Colori Persi Suite, where the tones of the ceiling fresco seem to spill into the room, creating a luminous dialogue between past and present. The lost colours continue throughout, threaded through cocoon-like moiré fabrics that subtly echo the movement of the Venetian laguna.
THE WAGON BAR IS CONCEIVED AS AN ART DECO SPEAKEASY INSPIRED BY THE ORIGINAL RAILCAR LOUNGES OF THE ORIENT EXPRESS
The Orient Express is rooted in movement, transition, and journey. How did you bring that sense of motion into a static structure like a palazzo?
Inspired by the golden age of travel, historic trunks are reinterpreted as wonder cabinets throughout the Palazzo — from bedside tables and wardrobes to dressing rooms, even concealing bathrooms within the suites. They bring the rituals of departure and arrival into the interiors, creating a quiet sense of slow travel throughout the space. This continuity extends into the Wagon Bar, conceived as an Art Deco speakeasy inspired by the original railcar lounges of the Orient Express. In the Corte del Conte lobby, monumental bookcases and shelving compositions guide movement through layered surfaces of memory, almost like curated stations within the Palazzo.
The Cherubini Suite takes its name from the cherubs running across its walls, recalling that Venetian grandeur has always embraced joy and movement. A rediscovered frieze by Sebastiano Santi unfolds across the walls with dancing putti and women playing ancient instruments — movement suspended mid-song — while a layer of Renaissance faces crowns the space with wisdom and poetry.
I wanted to respond thoughtfully to these multiple layers of history, embracing the legacy while introducing a new interior architecture into the room with timeless elegance and permanent rhythm.
Spaces like Il Corte del Conte transform a former courtyard into a dramatic living room. How do you approach such bold architectural interventions?
One of the greatest challenges in the renovation was the ground floor itself. Today’s lobby was once an open courtyard shaped only by air, light, and the elements. Historically, the Palazzo was always a place of gathering and celebration, and I wanted to preserve that warmth and sense of belonging. What was once a passageway is now conceived as a generous living room. I introduced a grand library-like architectural structure within the Palazzo itself, seamlessly integrating technical functions into monumental shelving and hidden compartments. The intention was never to create the feeling of a technical intervention, but to bring timeless elegance and natural ease into the space. Wood-clad libraries with Murano details subtly conceal contemporary technology, including the new entrance hidden behind Venetian artisanal glass doors.
- The full story is featured in Vol.19 -
