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Hotel Cipriani's Gondola Massage

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ABOVE: A customer gets a spa treatment aboard a gondola with the Hotel Cipriani's Palazzo Vendramin, Palazzetto, and Granaries of the Republic as a backdrop. INSET BELOW: The hotel gardens.

Are you pressed for time (but not for money) and stressed by your abbreviated Venetian vacation schedule? The Hotel Cipriani, Venice's luxury resort hotel on Giudecca Island, has a solution for hurried, harried, and well-heeled tourists:

At the hotel's Casanova Beauty and Wellness Center, you can book a journey on the Laguna by gondola, with an open-air massage as you're rowed across the water. The price isn't cheap (you'll be several hundred euros poorer when you return to the dock), but Venetian gondola rides without massages aren't priced for the faint of heart or weak of wallet, either.

One obvious question that comes to mind is: "Will I be ogled by the gondolier or by passengers on other boats?" The answer depends, to a great deal, on your O.Q. (ogleability quotient) and how brazen you are when you remove your bathrobe. Still, the Hotel Cipriani is in Venice, not Vegas, and its masseuses and other staff are trained to be discreet.

For more information, visit the Hotel Cipriani's massage options, see the hotel Web site's Casanova Beauty and Wellness Center pages, e-mail casanovaspa [at] hotelcipriani.it, or phone +39 041 240 8016.

Photos copyright © Orient Express Hotels (UK) Ltd.