SimplyAbuDhabi XII

Clooney had personally dropped off a bottle of his own brand of new beverage, Casamigos. The week before music legend Neil Young had been enjoying a break there with his wife. Leonardo DiCaprio, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro often frequent the Fortuny restaurant and bar. Basically, anyone worthy of a paparazzo snap visits the Hotel Cipriani. Therein lies another exceptional aspect of this property – total respect for privacy, a refined sense of discretion and the most sophisticated service and staff you could hope for. A nosy photographer would not get a look in. The property is owned by the Orient Express group and Laura Di Bert, Regional Director of PR Italy is the perfect host at the Cipriani. Vivacious and charming, she recommends some great activities and can organise a range of specially devised tours for guests, from ‘Bacaro’ tours where on board a traditional Venetian boat you will navigate the city’s photogenic canals and sample culinary delights at hidden local stops, through to bike rides on the canal. Yes, you did read that correctly, bike rides on the water. These are special contraptions fixed to inflatable banana-like stabilizers, so while you are effectively riding a conventional mountain bike, you are actually sailing along the canals, drinking in the spectacle of Venice glittering in the sunlight.