Review - fête: Venice ⭐️
(Update, sadly this resort has now closed)
Fete owners JeVon and Exeter Nova-Parnes are well known in the Second Life restaurant scene, running both their own stand alone venue as well as having branches within other hotels (for example, the Japanese themed Koyo Kyoto).
But until now they haven’t run a resort. That changed after their wedding, which they staged in a SL replica of Venice.
With a lot of their friends asking to stay there after the wedding, JeVon and Exeter ended up turning it into a seven room boutique resort.
Aria and I went to stay for two nights, which included having dinner in the Fete restaurant on the sim. We were really impressed with the attention to detail, the level of RL accuracy (not easy in Second Life), the design and service.
All photos by Aria Christen, rights reserved
Aria has a separate review of Fete restaurant in Venice on her food blog, take a look
Overall look and feel
Recreating an RL location in Second Life can be hard, there’s only so much you can fit into a region for example before it looks cramped.
So we were curious to see how Fete’s version of Venice shaped up.
One detail I was looking out for were the four horses of St Marks, originally looted by the Venetians from the then capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople (present day Istanbul).
Would they be on top of the cathedral like in the RL Venice? Sure enough they were. As were the frescos and mosaics you see on the actual St Marks Cathedral.
Apparently the two owners pored over photographs of Venice in order to get it right, and it shows.
The layout, the key landmarks (the Rialto Bridge, St Mark’s Campanile Tower, the Doge’s Palace) are all there, along with details such as having St Mark’s Square flooded, which does happen at this time of year.
Really, JeVon and Exter should be commended for getting so much right.
They’ve then added their own touches, for example on the side of the Rialto Bridge they’ve put black and white pictures of the city. This really works and adds to the overall atmosphere.
Overall - 5 / 5
The rooms
There are suites costing 1500, 1750 and 2000L, we stayed in the middle option, booking a Palazzo Suite for 1750L.
This is on the Grand Canal, and has a terrace, a large bedroom / living room and a bathroom. It has both classic and modern touches, there are postcards of Venice along the wall, and everything looks and feels coordinated in the way it is put together with beige / cream tones.
It’s not as huge as suites you might see in other SL resorts, but here it is a case of less is more. For a couple, it’s really the perfect size.
Overall - 4.5 / 5
The facilities
The mainstay of Fete Venice is of course the restaurant. Aria has a separate post up about it on her food blog (link), but suffice to say the experience lived up to the usual high Fete standards.
Other than the restaurant, there is a spa. We went inside to take a look, it’s nicely designed, but also small. However there are RP services on offer.
Other facilities include a pizzeria, chocolate shop, museum, breakfast cafe and a casino (no RP, just there to view).
The Fete owners have also recreated the Liberia Acqua Alta, a Venice bookshop that has to keep its books in bathtubs due to constant flooding. This is where you can also pick up a free gift, a Venice coffee table book to take home.
Overall though the sim is the attraction, it’s made for exploring and for enjoyment.
Overall - 4 / 5
The animations
The suite we were in had a Kraftwork Adult bed and Onsu living room furniture including a Sienna adult sofa. The bathroom had a not mine compatible shower and a SIFOWER bathtub by Sources.
Overall - 4 / 5
Other considerations
I recently attended a travel conference in RL where I heard that the core area of Venice now has less than 50,000 inhabitants, the lowest number in 1000 years.
Why? Because of the hordes of tourists who have turned it into a kind of theme park, including cruise ship visitors who spend very little money in the city.
You won’t have that kind of experience here, the resort is closed to the public.
Instead you need to book via the Fete website, and then when you arrive only guests and staff have access.
This makes for a much better experience than if the sim was open to all, as you would no doubt get, just like in RL Venice, a lot of visitors who would just come, take pictures and leave.
We experienced a little bit of lag, but nothing too bad, Aria was able to take pictures in Black Dragon.
Overall
Highly recommended, especially for couples. The level of detail, the design, the scale and just the immersiveness means that this resort really stands out.
Finally, JeVon and Exeter told us they had no definite date for how long they’d keep it open, but so long as people want to go it will be there. As a result, we suggest booking sooner rather than later.
