Venice travel tips from Trinny Woodall: Brit reveals history with the Italian city, why she keeps coming back

Trinny Woodall is one damn savvy businesswoman.

The stylist, who 10 years ago pivoted from UK TV shows that reached around the globe (think What Not To Wear), has built a skincare and make-up business (Trinny London) worth more than $300 million.

That’s quite the pivot.

Woodall’s adoring “Trinny Tribe” of followers hang off her every overshare and midlife observation, with the down-to-earth beauty queen a regular in Australia to visit various pop-up counters across the country, as well as her Australian-based brother and his wife.

On a recent whirlwind visit to Melbourne, the 62-year-old sat down with ROAM to move beyond beauty to talk escapism and why Venice holds a special place.

“I first went to Venice in the 1970s, when I was eight. My parents took me to the Excelsior Hotel Lido Resort for our summer holidays and it’s been one of my favourite places to travel ever since.

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“I celebrated my 40th birthday there, and thought, if I was going to have a party, this would be a dream destination. It’s become a place I like to go back to often.

“At the time, my husband Johnny and I travelled with our baby daughter Lyla. We wanted to get her christened, but couldn’t do it in London because the Church of Scotland I wanted wasn’t available and it became all too complicated. In Venice, it all came together on a whim. I turned to him and said, ‘Should we get her christened here?’ In the end, we combined my 40th birthday and Lyla’s christening in one party.

“It’s been a special memory ever since, a very spiritual place for the three of us. I remember being in an English church with our miracle baby — Lyla took 16 rounds of IVF so we felt beyond blessed for her arrival. The shock of sunlight that came through the glass panel of the church window hit her face and I can still see it when I reminisce this moment.

“For me a trip to Venice is never one too many. You must go and see the iconic Italian Renaissance sculptor and painter Antonio Canova’s neoclassical art. There’s an inverted pyramid in the church and everyone thinks he’s buried there but he’s not, even though he’s meant to be! But you do feel a surging sense of his presence when inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

“The key to really enjoying Venice is to not do the most obvious routes that tourists tend to take. Yes, there’s the Gallerie dell’Accademia and Ponte di Rialto bridge, but the local areas behind the Venetian Arsenal are worth a visit, as are the other islands around it like Murano and Burano. You’ll find it quieter, and come across canals that aren’t heaving with people; but you still get to the heart of Venice.

“As a child, the Excelsior was one of the grandest hotels I had ever stayed in and when I returned it had shrunk a bit — I mean, my memory of it was from when I was tiny. When I go to Venice now, I either stay with friends or the Gritti Palazzo, built in 1475 as a noble residence for the Pisani family and later the home of doge Andrea Gritti. It holds some of the best memories of me with my daughter’s father and holds a special place for us now that he is not around. (He died in 2014.)

“If you’ve ever seen the Netflix drama series The Young Pope, there’s a great scene where Jude Law is standing in the belfry at St Mark’s Square with those amazing horses and it kind of makes me feel nostalgic for Venice. I love every bit of it.

“Italy is one of my favourite places to travel — it’s sexy, Italians love children, they make the best food in Europe and it ticks all the boxes for me.

“I remember my husband wanting to buy me something to keep forever near the jewellery shops not far from the Rialto bridge — he said, ‘What about a fur coat?’ I thought, we can’t do that. But we did end up at a tiny toy shop and bought Lyla a fur toy. She had it for years — until our dog eventually ate it.”

trinnylondon.com