High hopes for Italian rooftop pools

When it opened in 2002, the es.hotel, as it was known then, was the first new-build hotel in central Rome for decades. Taken over by the Radisson group a couple of years later, it's lost little of its design edge, and the wishful-thinking prices have come down to more competitive levels. In most bedrooms, beds and shower units occupy the same wooden raft in the middle of the floor, and their tinted glass end walls make for a Mondrian-on-acid effect in the central courtyard. But the hotel's real X-factor is its 20-metre rooftop pool, open from mid-May to mid-September. There's also a smaller kids' pool, and a stylish rooftop bar/restaurant, Sette. The surrounding area, down the side of the city's main Termini train station, is not the most salubrious in the city, but it's generally pretty safe, and there's a certain frisson of contrast to be enjoyed in the view from one's poolside sun lounger of commuter trains coming and going below.

If you're coming to Rome in the heat of summer, you could do worse than check in here.

August is low season in the eternal city, and if you book at least three weeks in advance, double rooms that would normally sell for upwards of 250 can be nabbed for as little as 120 B&B. Via Filippo Turati 171, Rome.
www.radissonblu.com/
eshotel-rome

There are those who are put off by that brand name. But this is no ordinary Hilton. The former grain mill that the hotel now occupies dominates the Venetian skyline at the western tip of the Giudecca, the island that curves like a gondola a five-minute waterbus ride south of Venice proper.

Built at the end of the 19th century by Swiss-Italian entrepreneur Giovanni Stucky, this Hanseatic Gothic red-brick folly is the single largest man-made structure in the city. Sprawling over its 13 separate buildings, which took over 10 years to restore and convert, the 387-room hotel needs the conference trade to fill all those beds, and you'll often find it full of Nebraskan dentists or Austrian engineers. But despite the corporate feel of some of the downstairs communal areas, the Hilton has two tricks up its sleeve: a full-featured Espace spa, and what must be one of the world's most panoramic rooftop pools, tucked in just underneath the spire of the former mill's distinctive tower. The pool itself is on the dinky side, and you should be up here soon after it opens in the morning to bagsy one of the few sun loungers. Bring plenty of sun-slap too, as heritage regulations mean that the hotel is not allowed to set up parasols. The view from poolside stretches across the southern lagoon and the rooftops of Venice to the belltower of St Mark's. It's magical in the evening too, when the Skyline bar (which has been discovered by Venetians too) is a perfect place for a sunset aperitivo.

Double rooms from 209 B&B (advance purchase internet rate). Giudecca 810, Venice.
www.molinostuckyhilton.com

Piazza Santa Maria Novella has undergone a transformation in the last few years. Once the domain of seedy one-star hotels and hawkers, the square is now far more in tune with the magnificent Renaissance church that dominates it, with classy new upscale hotels, restaurants and bars turning this into an open-air living room.

The Minerva, a comfortable four-star right next to the church, predates the turnaround, as does its rooftop pool — a stylish Fifties design in travertine marble by post-war modernist architect Edoardo Detti. But it's taken on a new lease of life as a venue for one of the city's hottest aperitivo events — on Thursdays, when for the all-in price of 17 Florentines and hotel guests mingle over drinks, live music and an all-you-can-eat buffet rounded off, from 9.30 onwards, by crêpes and flambées. The rest of the time, the pool (open from May to the end of September) is a delightful refuge from the footslog of sightseeing, with views over red-tiled rooftops to Brunelleschi's cathedral dome. And unlike the other pools featured here, it stays open until midnight each day.

Double rooms from 160 B&B Piazza Santa Maria Novella 16, Florence.
www.grandhotelminerva.com