Art&Style

Venice Hospitality Challenge 2023

An exhibition celebrates its first 10 years

by Lavinia Colonna Preti
The Tenth Anniversary of the Venice Hospitality Challenge — Veneto Secrets

The tenth edition of the Venice Hospitality Challenge is underway, the only regatta held in the internal waters of a city, the amazing Venice, this year also celebrated by an exhibition that combines sailing, art and hospitality.

The exhibition, set up from 30 September to 15 October 2023 at the V-A-C Foundation in Fondamenta delle Zattere 1401, with free admission, recounts 10 years of the sailing competition, as well as the related activities of the Yacht Club Venezia.

The Venice Hospitality Challenge, reserved only for maxi yachts, was born, in fact, on 19 October 2014 when, together with seven Venetian hotels, Mirko Sguario, President of the Venice Yacht Club, began this adventure with the aim of bringing great sailing in Venice and catalyze the public’s attention on the excellence of hospitality in the Lagoon.

The Tenth Anniversary of the Venice Hospitality Challenge — Veneto Secrets
The Tenth Anniversary of the Venice Hospitality Challenge — Veneto Secrets

Sailing is much more than a sport, poetically speaking, it is the essence of freedom given by contact with nature in the silence of the sails inflated by the wind and the waves.

(Mirko Sguario, President Yacht Club Venezia)

The exhibition “Venice Hospitality Challenge il Decennale” is an anthology and a tribute to the world of sailing, curated by Patrizia Zambelli and expressed through the arts that have represented it: photography, hospitality, glass art.

On display you can, in fact, admire the most exciting shots of the photographers who, each with their own gaze, interpreted the famous event, the “Doge’s Hats”, the prize of the regatta, both this year’s one created by Berengo Studio and the works of previous editions signed by the masters of the most famous Murano glassworks, as well as the roll of honor of the winners, photos of the participating hotels, posters and other memorabilia.

The Tenth Anniversary of the Venice Hospitality Challenge — Veneto Secrets

The appointment to see the maxi yachts in the race is on Saturday 14 October from the Zattere, where the headquarters of the event will be established, with the regatta starting at 1.30pm, marked, as per tradition, by the powerful jets of water from the tugboats near Punta della Salute (the boats can however be admired starting from Thursday 12th).

Here is the list of the 17 boats participating in the race, “signed” by the elite of Venetian hospitality: 1. Alajmo Ristorante Quadri, 2. Aman Venice, 3. Bauer Palazzo, 4. Ca’ di Dio VRetreats, 5. Ca’ Sagredo Hotel, 6. Hotel Danieli , 7. Hotel Excelsior, 8. The Gritti Palace, 9. Londra Palace, 10. JW Marriott, 11. Nolinski Venezia, 12. Palazzina, 13. The St. Regis Venice, 14. SINA Centurion Palace, 15. Violino d’ Gold, as well as those of the 16th Municipality of Venice-Salone Nautico and the 17th F. Morosini Military Naval School.

The event is a unique opportunity to live Venice as you have never seen it and dream of it as it was conceived to be experienced, from the waterside.

Useful Info

Venice Hospitality Challenge il Decennale
from 30 September to 15 October 2023
V-A-C Foundation
Fondamenta delle Zattere 1401, Venice
Opening hours: from 11.00 to 17.00 – free admission

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