Grace Kelly on the Venice Simplon Orient Express in 1977 (Photo by Donald Stampfli/RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

ullstein bild via Getty Images

On the terrace there’s a man with a falcon. The falconer is gently stroking the bird’s head like it’s a small, unusually glamorous cat. At the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, somehow this scene doesn’t feel rare or out of place - despite it’s location on the ancient Venetian lagoon island of Giudecca with its intense August summer heat. It’s not even one of the most memorable things you’ll experience before dinner at this newly re-imagined gem in Belmond’s Italian hotel collection.

Since reopening in 2025 after a two year refurbishment, you can now spend a couple of nights with Belmond in Venice before travelling on one of the brand’s most legendary Venice Simplon Orient Express routes, the Venice to Paris journey – loved by discerning artists and actors alike since it’s launch date in 1982. Once again, a couple of nights at Venice’s Cipriani hotel is again becoming a popular pit stop for travellers before being enveloped in the romance of beautifully restored vintage carriages, immaculate dining and luxury of the cinematic VSOE train.

The journey starts on the island of Giudecca, once a medieval fishing island in Venice’s lagoon and now where Serenissima stalwarts who have been visiting Venice for decades want to stay. As well as housing the factory of the luxury Italian textile label Fortuny, Cipriani Venice has been on this island since 1958 and the two luxury lifestyle brands set the opulent yet discreet mood of the island. Founded by Giuseppe Cipriani, who also invented the Venetian peach bellini, Cipriani is on Giudecca precisely because of its lack of tourists yet with direct views of St Marks Basillica. Since the 1950s Cipriani has welcomed guests including Yves Saint Laurent and Sophia Loren, both of whom have sipped the famous homemade bellinis around their olympic pool (Cipriani is one of the only hotels that has a pool in Venice.)

From here, Venice feels edited. Softer, slightly blurred at the edges. Across the lagoon, the domes and facades of St Marks look like a set designer’s magnum opus. Even Isola di San Michele, which is, objectively, a cemetery, feels serene rather than sombre. Coming to Venice for a handful of Biennales, you start to wonder if the city has always looked like this, or if you’ve just finally found the right angle.

The food at Cipriani’s Cips Club and Oro restaurants is extravagant without trying too hard. Grilled fish with citrus and a vitello tonnato that looks like a work of art. Inside, interior designer Peter Marino has restored the buzz and energy to the hotel with a library, artworks by Conrad Marca-Relli and a maximalist mood that contrasts perfectly against the original midcentury interiors of the hotel. Rooms are kitted out with Venini Vases, Gio Ponti mirrors and artworks by Carla Accardi and Emilio Vedova.

At Venezia Santa Lucia railway station, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is waiting, with staff and the train’s driver proudly lining up for photo opportunities – very composed and slightly pre-occupied with the day of travel ahead. The carriages date back to the 1920s and 1930s, many originally built by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Some were pulled from storage in the 1980s and restored with almost obsessive care (marquetry, Lalique glass, Japanese laquer), while others have never stopped running, making them feel even more special to spend the night in.

This journey from Venice to Paris feels just as much of a cultural experience as it does travel. Each of the carriages, which total half a mile if you were to walk through them, have been meticulously restored – from the polished wood marquetry to the brass fixtures. Inside the cars, glossy wood, original mirrors, and tiny fringed lamps that have been updated with modern abstract fabrics set the mood. Officine Universelle Buly products are lined up in the original tiny bathrooms and the Rivolta Carmignani blue and white abstract print robes – specially designed for the VSOE trains – make lounging just as elegant as the surroundings. Then there are the details you don’t notice immediately, Palma violets on the nightstand, playing cards and a book mark placed on the last page you’ve read.

The staff on the VSOE make the experience as special and curated as it is, and it’s hard work. Each steward is responsible for their own carriage – serving meals, drinks and making the beds up at night. Many of the train stewards have worked on the trains for decades and have parents who also spent their careers with the Orient Express. Each have their own unique stories of why they love working on the trains and their expert knowledge of the journey’s history is second to none.

While it might be tempting to stay cocooned in your cabin, walking from carriage to carriage is essential and a nice way to meet other guests – with corridors so small that passing people feels cinematic. As you move from car to car there are shifts in design—the textures of the wildly printed carpets, variations in the woodwork. Along the way small plaques explain the histories of how each cabin has been brought back to life. In the restrooms, the mosaic floor tiles and the original marble sink have been lovingly restored to their 1920s splendor. Moving through these historic spaces it’s not hard to see why these trains have inspired so much cultural and cinematic legacy. As you near the restaurant and mythic 3674 bar car that amongst dozens of other artists – Josephine Baker, Leo Tolstoy, Grace Kelly, and of course, Agatha Christie, have sipped martinis in, the monumental scale of the history of this train makes the experience feel even more special.

Dinner is a big event on the VSOE train. Guests retreat to their rooms to put on evening outfits that have been picked with the century-long legacy of Orient Express fashion in mind. Everyone then convenes by invitation to bar car 3674 at the very end of the train. As the bar looms, the mood shifts as a pianist can be heard playing and chatting with guests. Waitors in white bar jackets pour from a fifteen-strong selection of ice cold champagne and mix French 75’s. It all creates a very specific kind of glamour unique to VSOE.

Guests are reserved a place in one of the three restaurant cars - L’Oriental, Côte d’Azur, and Etoile du Nord– and each meal is reserved ahead of time so guests can eat in each of these famous moving restaurants. Chefs lean into the romance of the setting without becoming gimmicky. Scallop ceviche, rack of lamb and pistachio eclair are served as the border of Italy and France is crossed. Restraint is part of the appeal and the porcelain is custom with minimalist references to the 125 year legacy of travel on the Orient Express.

Later, in your cabin, beds have been set up and made as outside small towns, empty platforms and the occasional figure passes by. It feels less like travelling and more like being artfully relocated. Mornings on the Orient Express feel surprisingly grounded for something with so much legacy. Breakfast isn’t over-the-top—croissants, strong coffee and champagne if you’re in the mood.

After breakfast, cabin stewards flip beds back into compact sofas and the space becomes a living room for a few hours once again. As the industrial skyline of suburban Paris emerges, the glamour and perfect execution of the Venice to Paris VSOE route feels even more at odds with the grey city surroundings. While the train slowly pulls into Paris Gare de l'Est station the stewards, precise, practiced, and erudite as always, offer parting words. It’s not just the end of the route, but an invitation to return again.