The Excelsior was the building that made the Lido fashionable. Before 1908 the island had been a thin strip of fishing villages and farms; the Excelsior — with its arches, glazed tilework, and four hundred sea-facing rooms — turned it into the seasonal address of Mitteleuropean leisure. By 1912 the Venice Lido was the canonical Italian Adriatic destination.

The building also anchored the Venice International Film Festival from its founding in 1932 — the Sala Grande and the seafront terraces are still the Festival’s social centre during the first days of September. The Liberty grammar survives in the wrought iron, the staircases, and the central courtyard.

The Excelsior operates as a Marriott Luxury Collection hotel. Lobby and seafront promenade are open to non-guests; the historic Sala Stucchi and original Sala dei Cesari can be visited on request. The vaporetto from Piazzale Roma to S.M. Elisabetta takes thirty-five minutes; from there a short walk through Liberty villas leads to the Excelsior.