Best Marriott Properties in Italy

Where in Italy? It is a large country. I would certainly hope they wouldn’t be like the ones in US, rather Italian I feel.

We are new to the Marriott program so have not yet used them in Italy, but we have a reservation at the STRAF in MIlan next March. The location is great, very close to the Duomo.

In Venice I would probably choose the Danieli for the history and location. It is a classic Venetian luxury hotel, nothing like a US Marriott.

Thanks so much Lola! I will check out those two properties. In addition to Venice, we plan to visit Florence and Rome and other areas in between. There seem to be Marriott properties around these areas as well so any other experience with a Marriott around Florence or Rome?

Download the Bonvoy app from Marriott. It makes searching very easy. And you can book through it using points or cash. Having said that, figure out where you really want to go and what you want to see. If you can book a hotel there with points, terrific. But don’t let a free night or two determine where you go.

I’ve enjoyed staying at the Westin Excelsior on two visits and the St Regis both in Rome. Beautiful properties

In Rome, the Marriott Grand Flora is on Via Veneto by Villa Borghese. Very elegant. Also near US Embassy.

I suggest you consider saving your points for the US and not stay in US owned facilities in Italy. Be brave and stay at privately owned facilities. I think it will make for a better experience.

I agree with DougMac. One of the best things about Italy are the gracious helpful hosts of BnB's and small hotels. Some of our best experiences resulted from their recommendations.

Several years ago I did something similar - used points for all my hotel stays on a trip that included Rome, Florence and Venice. Mind you, this was before Marriott bought Starwood, and I booked everything through SPG. Two of the properties are part of the Marriott program now - St. Regis in Florence, St. Regis in Venice (which was the Westin Europa and Regina at the time; it was just remodeled, rebranded, and relaunched this year as the St. Regis Venice). In Rome, we stayed at the Hotel Eden (which was SPG at the time, but is no longer part of Marriott). Truth be told, I'd have never stayed at any of these hotels had it not been for points. They're tremendously expensive (many hundreds of Euros per night at least, and often easily costing well over 1000 euros/night) but I'd built up a mountain of points through some extensive work travel and my husband and I decided to, in the immortal words of Tom and Donna from Parks and Recreation, "Treat yo self!".

While I certainly see the reason in suggestions one check out BnBs and smaller hotels, I can't fault you at all for wanting to look at using points. By doing so for our trip, we essentially wiped lodging costs away entirely for a lengthy trip through Italy. It was nice to be able to plan a trip and not have to worry about paying for hotels at all. SPG had promos at the time (as does Marriott Bonvoy now) to do things like redeem for 4 nights, get a 5th night free. Of course, staying in these over the top luxury hotels meant they could claw back some of that money in other ways - wifi was not cheap, had we chosen to eat breakfast at the hotels that would have been quite expensive, and so on. Ordering room service would have required taking out a second mortgage. We avoided all those incidentals for the most part, though in each hotel did treat ourselves to a one-off indulgence - one morning's breakfast in the rooftop dining room of the Eden, enjoying sweeping views of Rome; one morning's breakfast on the terrace along the Grand Canal at the hotel in Venice; sipping gourmet coffees on the piazza patio of the hotel in Florence. By not spending anything at all for the rooms themselves, we were able to embrace and indulge in those moments and thoroughly enjoy them, while not making a habit of them. By not spending anything on hotels, we were also able to do things like splurge on private tour guides, boat rides, etc. In a way, staying in those hotels helped us explore more - being so averse to spending 60+ euros per person for breakfast at the hotel made getting out and exploring to find a good breakfast all the more appealing.

Hotels change, and the hotel we stayed at in Venice has changed entirely. So, speaking to location only, I'd say each was very well located. The hotel in Venice was right on the Grand Canal, a very short walk from Piazza San Marco. Our room looked out over the canal, and across to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. In Florence, the St. Regis was on a small and quiet piazza right next to the Arno, and our room overlooked the river. Both hotels were convenient, easy walking distance to everything we wanted to see and do. The room at the St. Regis in Florence was pretty remarkable - canopied bed, antiques, dark woods, tapestries, and a pretty stunning piece of period decor and design. To that latter point, keep in mind I had Platinum status with SPG at the time so enjoyed complimentary upgrades at each hotel. I was able to redeem the fewest number of starpoints for each property, while still lucking out and getting room upgrades (this was in late October). With Marriott, you can redeem more points for a higher category room to have it guaranteed if you want. So while I'm a "free agent" now and don't commit to a particular hotel program, at the time we took that trip it made total sense.

Have a fantastic trip, and put those points to good use!! :)

Do you have enough points to cover the entire trip?

I haven’t stayed there, but this looks interesting: https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lcvbr-renaissance-tuscany-il-ciocco-resort-and-spa/?scid=bb1a189a-fec3-4d19-a255-54ba596febe2

It could be a treat during your trip.

I still encourage you if you can’t do the whole trip on points to get away from big hotels whenever possible. In our years of travel, our most meaningful experiences have been in small B&Bs and agriturismos. We seek out experiences, such as staying on a dairy farm in rural Scotland. They just had 17 calves and we got to visit the babies. They were empty nesters and supplemented their income renting out two spare bedrooms. The accommodations were modest but the experience was priceless!

Autograph Collection Hotels are part of the Marriott portfolio and bookable with points, but they are independently owned and operated. “Design Hotels” are also independent.

We stayed in two different Autograph Collection hotels in London last May; both were “very British” and also very nice. The STRAF hotel in Milan is part of the Design Collection and very Italian.

No, these are not “mom and pop” operations, but a good option in big cities. In Swiss villages and small towns in the UK we do love to try the family-run garni and Bed and Breakfasts, but in big cities it is often nice to have a full-service hotel.

We stayed at the Autograph Marriott Grand Dei Dogi this past April in the Cannaregio area, which is very quiet and peaceful. The entrance to the hotel is on a small canal; there is a large [rare] garden; the rear of the property is on the lagoon, facing Murano. The building and grounds were originally an old palace. Nothing about the property reminded us of a big chain hotel. The rear area had a small dock, and we had wine and cheese picnics out there at sunset.
Breakfast was not included in the room price, but we had more fun wandering the quiet canals and finding our own reasonably-priced meals.
It was very easy to walk into the crowded areas of Venice from this property, and when we were tired, we used the vaporettos to return; there are two convenient stops.
This was our second stay there, and like yourselves, using our Marriott points allowed us to spend our money elsewhere . I did not feel like we made any compromises staying at this Marriott, and the service was excellent!
Safe travels!

Free nights at ultra luxury hotel is certainly hard to pass up. The St. Regis in Florence is where Madonna stays when she’s holding a concert in town, so you know it’s not the Motel6.
However, as others have mentioned, be careful about the fact that any extra you purchase at those hotels (from WiFi to room service to dinner) is charged at extortionate prices. So if you use anything (and I mean any paid service there) you will pay more than a room elsewhere.
The other thing to be careful is distance. Some of the properties may be luxury and part of the same chain, but if they are not a short walking distance from the sights I wouldn’t take it. Marriott for example has also a facility in Florence near the Porta Al Prato station (near the new Opera House). I wouldn’t stay there. Too far to walk from everything.

Like Pat, we stayed at the Marriott Grand Dei Dogi in Venice earlier this year. It's in a great location in a quiet neighborhood yet an easy walk to the sites. Enjoy.