The Secret Hotels of Florence & Venice

Hotel Bernardi-Semenzato Calle della Coa 4366 (parallel to Strada Nova near Campo SS. Apostoli), Cannaregio, 041-522-7257, fax 041-522-2424, hotelbernardi@vergilio.it. Doubles ($45-$55) without bath, ($85-$90) with bath. This is the Little Wonder Hotel of Venice: It has friendly family management, lies just off the main drag between the train station and San Marco, and is flush with incredible four-star amenities and class at one-star prices so astoundingly low they have to post much higher official ones otherwise the other hotels complain. Not only do you get Murano chandeliers, hand-painted eighteenth-century Venetian-style furnishings, and rough-beamed ceilings, but also satellite TV, air-conditioning, and a minibar. The homey annex is even better, as several of the large rooms overlook the L-bend of a canal, and a few even sport 200-year-old iron chandeliers, massive fireplaces, and eighteenth-century ceiling frescoes. Plans to upgrade the annex's functional furnishings to canopied beds and repro-antiques are in the works.

Pensione Al Guerrato Calle Drio La Scimia 240A (off Ruga Speziali), San Polo, 041-522-7131, fax 041-528-5927, web.tiscali.it/pensioneguerrato. Doubles ($80-$93) without bath, ($100-$115) with bath. Roberto is so friendly that departing guests often hug and cheek-kiss him good-bye (though this may also have to do with the fact that he resembles a long-lost Baldwin brother). This 14-room pensione in a thirteenth-century palazzo near the Rialto Bridge is one of Venice's best for its welcoming atmosphere and sheer value. The good-size rooms with their patched-up chipped-stone flooring and historic Venice photos are spruced up with Murano lamps, scraps of frescoes in a few (best in number 3), and a stupendous melange of antique-yet-homey furnishings. "I stole everything I could from the houses of my grandmother and my aunties," Roberto says. Rooms overlooking the Rialto market to a sliver of Grand Canal and the Ca' d'Oro tend to be smaller and quite noisy during the early-morning market. The rates sometimes peak over our price ceiling-the lower ones are applied October to March and if you pay cash-but rarely will you find such an excellent marriage of price, class, and warmth at any Venice hotel.

Albergo Doni Calle del Vin 4656, Castello, tel/fax 041-522-4267. Doubles ($80) without bath, ($105) with bath. The Doni family has been welcoming guests to its 12-room hotel mere steps off the high-rent Riva degli Schiavoni since 1946, and though Niccol- and Tessa now run the place, Grandma Gina hangs around to keep an eye on everything. Creaky floorboards lead to the modestly sized rooms filled with a hodge-podge of furnishings and aging bedsprings. However, all is forgiven when you check into room 8 and see the Murano chandelier dangling from a ceiling gorgeously frescoed in 1850, or throw open your bottle-bottom windows in room 3 to see a canal cruising with gondolas (rooms 12, 20, and 21 share the view). Only three of the rooms have private bath; the others split three large, clean ones. The prices listed above apply to the high season (generally, Easter to mid-October, and the weeks of Carnevale and Christmas); at other times they may be lower.

Foresteria Valdese Calle Luga S. Maria Formosa 5170 (just over the bridge at the end of the street), Castello, 041-528-6797, fax 041-241-6238, chiesavaldese.org/venezia. Doubles ($54) without bath, ($70) with bath. The 40-foot hallways and frescoed rooms of the 1711 Palazzo Cavagnis host some of Venice's best cheap lodgings thanks to the Valdese order. I can't give you many specifics on the accommodations because as we go to press the guesthouse is undergoing a prolonged renovation that will open up more rooms as well as turn most of the small dorms into private rooms with bath. Just ask for a camera affrescata to get one of the coveted rooms with eighteenth- or nineteenth-century ceiling frescoes. Given its location at a confluence of waterways, almost all rooms overlook a small canal.

Hotel San Samuele Salizzada San Samuele 3358, San Marco, tel/fax 041-522-8045. Doubles ($62-$70) without bath, ($88-$100) with bath. No credit cards. The amicable, energetic owners Bruno, Piero, and Mimmo hold cleanliness in the highest regard, and their simple, ten-room pensione positively sparkles. The sloping, old pebble-stone floors support modern furnishings, efficient baths, and a profusion of flowers in the window boxes (many of the bright rooms have two windows-a luxury in Venice). Every year they renovate something; last year it was rooms 9 and 10 on the staircase, which are carpeted, nonsmoking, and overlook a small, ivy-clad courtyard.

Hotel Caneva Ramo dietro La Fava 5515, Castello, 041-522-8118, fax 041-520-8676, hotelcaneva.com. Doubles ($77) without bath, ($98) with bath (subtract $10 if you pay cash). Gino has run this basic one-star hotel since 1955, now helped by his son Massimo. Its location is fantastic-a three-minute stroll from Piazza San Marco-and 17 of 23 rooms overlook a canal to the palazzo where Casanova once lived. Many rooms are blessed with a strip of Gothic decor along the interior wall courtesy of the palazzo's fourteenth-century origins, and eight enjoy small balconies. Once you tear your gaze away from the gondolas cruising below, you'll notice the rooms themselves are fine, if nothing special: linoleum floors, unremarkable built-in units, and simple Venetian-glass light fixtures. The baths range from tiny modular shower jobs to aging tiled rooms with tubs. The breakfast room overlooks the choicest stretch of canal, opposite a Gothic palazzo.

Hotel Silva Ariel Calle della Masena 1391a (the street's marked merely "Parrocchia S. Marcuola"; it's off Rio Terra S. Leonardo), Cannaregio, tel/fax 041-720-326. Doubles ($50-$82) without bath, ($60-$105) with bath. This little family-run hotel is up a narrow side street just two blocks from the historic Jewish Ghetto and ten minutes from the station. The rooms are small but the effect is cozy, fitted with velvet headboards and modular '80s baths. Some have dark beams on plank ceilings, others let the sunlight pour in through walls of frosted glass. Marble tables fill the flower-bedecked covered patio where you can enjoy breakfast year-round.

Albergo Dalla Mora Salizzada San Pantalon 42 (just off the street), Santa Croce, 041-710-703, fax 041-723-006. Doubles ($67) without bath, ($72) with shower and sink, ($88) with bath. This unassuming hotel is tucked away in the little-touristed Santa Croce neighborhood, which is across the Grand Canal from the rail station, so it manages to be close by without feeling like a station neighborhood. Only six of the 16 rooms have a private bathroom-though four more have a shower and sink in the room (just no toilet). Half of the rooms overlook the wide, quiet Malcanton canal: four from the main blood-red house with its flower-fringed canal terrace, four from the annex across the alley. The rooms are basic but comfortably large for Venice. A few with foldout bunk beds are perfect for families.

Casa Gerotto Calderan Campo S. Geremia 283, Cannaregio, 041-715-562, fax 041-715-361, casagerottocalderan.com. Doubles ($52-$72) without bath,($71-$98) with bath. The Gerotto is your basic budget backpacker haven but not a dive or party house (they frown on drunkenness and don't let nonguests hang around). It's a ten-minute stroll from the station on a heavily trafficked square, so even the double-paned windows can't quite block out the pedestrian noise. However, those rooms on the front are the nicest in a varying lot, boasting eighteenth-century-style furnishings and, soon, air-conditioning (turning it on jacks up the price a bit, as does having a TV in your room). Others suffer from bland modular units, though those on the back courtyard do have the advantage of overlooking a leafy park one block away. They also offer shared-room "dorms" of only five beds each for ($21) per person.

Hotel Galleria Campo della Carita 878a (next to the Accademia Gallery), Dorsoduro, 041-523-2489, fax 041-520-4172, hotelgalleria.it. Doubles ($88-$93) without bath, ($104-$135) with bath. Yes, you can have a room right on the Grand Canal for under $90. But call early: There's only one. This place would be near the top of the list if only it had more rooms in our price bracket. Stefano and Luciano make you feel you're living as a doge while spending like a pauper. Everything is decorated in a rich, antique-Venetian style (patterned-silk walls, curvaceous eighteenth-century-style wood furnishings, ceiling stuccos in rooms 2 to 4), it's set right at the foot of the Accademia Bridge, and breakfast is served regally in your room. Actually, bathless little number 5 on the corner with its ($93) Grand Canal view is not nearly as requested by name as the larger, ($135) Grand Canal rooms with private bath: intimate number 8 with a raised sitting nook set into the arch of a canal-vista window, and number 10 with its frescoed ceiling.