Charming House iQs

Not IQs, as in Intelligence Quotient — though you will indeed feel smart staying here — but i Qs, Italian for, well, “the Qs.” This is an annex, or perhaps more precisely a satellite property, belonging to Charming House DD.724, and its four exceedingly stylish suites stand about twenty minutes from the main hotel, close by to the Piazza San Marco, with views over the Rio del Mondo Nuovo.

It’s notable for essentially the same reasons we love the original Charming House; in a town that’s known for its historical beauty, and whose hotels are known for a certain forced antique cuteness, the Charming House’s style is decidedly modern, its version of Venice a more relevant, contemporary one than you might have thought possible. And if the small size and intimate atmosphere is a strength of the original Charming House (it is), then it’s even more true of the Qs.

The three suites are distinct in layout and décor, but all are roughly comparable ground-floor units, with modernist furnishings and works of contemporary Italian art, while the entry-level Charming room is a bit more basic. At every level, the rooms and suites come with in-room continental breakfast service, and that’s about it — the theme here is privacy and self-reliance, not white-glove hotel service. There’s plenty of that elsewhere in Venice — what’s key about the Qs is that you can enjoy the typical old Venice by day, and shut it all out by night.