Thanks Trudy, wouldn't it be fabulous if we were both there at the same time, I would love that but, unfortunately, we are there at the end of the month! It looks as if there may be a festival or something happening around about the time we are planning to be there so a lot of accommodation is fully booked already.
It's our first, and probably only time we will be in Venice, but I will definitely look into the Continental and also the Bauer Paladio.