The famous Grand Hotel Des Bains on Venice Lido, setting of the Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice is to be restructured and transformed into a Condhotel. That is, part of the building will be converted into private apartments, alongside the traditional hotel rooms. These changes are part of a vast project aimed at re-launching Venices once fashionable beach resort, which has suffered a period of decline over the last few decades. The Italian real estate company Est Capital has bought over the Des Bains and the Grand Hotel Excelsior, where the Venice Film Festival was first launched in 1932, along with the Villa Cipriani of Asolo, from the American Starwood hotel chain. Gianfranco Mossetto, president of EstCapital, announced that the acquisition of the three prestigious properties should be regarded, first and foremost, as a cultural project that will contribute to re-qualify the entire area of Venice Lido and transform it once again into the fashionable and luxury resort that it was at the time of the belle Epoque.
