Italy · City break

Venice City Guide

Built on wooden piles in the lagoon, with no cars in the lanes: St Mark's Square glows with the golden mosaics of the basilica, palace facades line the Grand Canal, and behind the Rialto Bridge a maze of lanes begins. Two ready-made day routes sort it all out, from the dawn fish market to Santa Maria della Salute.

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Our walking tours of Venice

Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Venice – to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.

San Marco, Doge's Palace & Rialto

Day one belongs to the old seat of power: St Mark's Square early in the morning, the golden mosaics of the basilica, the all-round view from the Campanile over rooftops and lagoon, and the state rooms of the Doge's Palace with the walk across the Bridge of Sighs. Then through the lanes of Castello to Europe's oddest bookshop and finally to the Rialto Bridge.

St Mark's Square – Napoleon is said to have called it Europe's finest drawing room, and it is still the only square in Venice allowed to be called a piazza - all the others are merely campi. Arcades on three sides, the basilica on the fourth, the free-standing Campanile in between. Come early: before 8 am you have it almost to yourself, from 10 am it is one big crowd. When the high water comes this is the first place to flood and everyone walks on narrow raised boards - a sight you won't forget. And when you leave the square through the lanes towards Rialto, a short detour to Campo Manin pays off: hidden in a courtyard behind it is the Scala Contarini del Bovolo, a spiral staircase from around 1500 with a loggia above the rooftops.
St Mark's Basilica – St Mark's is no ordinary church but Byzantine splendour in stone: five domes modelled on Constantinople and inside some 8,000 square metres of gold mosaic that start to glow in low light. The bones of the evangelist Mark were smuggled here from Alexandria in 828, hidden under pork, so the legend goes, so the customs men wouldn't look. Take the combined ticket with museum and loggia: up there you stand beside the four bronze horses and look out over the whole square. Without a timed ticket you queue for a long time, and large backpacks have to be left at the depot.
St Mark's Campanile – The bell tower is just under 99 metres high and gives you the best all-round view in the city - by lift, no stairs. From the top you see the whole herringbone pattern of the rooftops, the lagoon and San Giorgio Maggiore on its own island opposite. Oddly enough you barely see the canals from up here, the houses hide almost all of them. In 1902 the tower collapsed completely and was rebuilt exactly as before by 1912, dov'era e com'era, where it was and how it was.
Doge's Palace – The pink and white palace was seat of government, court of law and prison of the Republic all at once. Inside, the state rooms lead to the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, where Tintoretto's Paradise fills an entire wall - one of the largest canvases in the world. From the palace you cross the Bridge of Sighs into the old cells and look out through the same barred windows the prisoners did. If you want more: the Itinerari Segreti tour takes you into interrogation rooms, the torture chamber and the lead-roofed cells Casanova escaped from.
Bridge of Sighs (from outside) – From the Ponte della Paglia on the waterfront you see the white bridge head-on, slung between palace and prison. The romantic name was invented by Lord Byron in the 19th century: the sighs were supposed to be those of the condemned taking their last look at the lagoon through the small windows. In reality it was mostly petty criminals behind them, so the drama is largely literary. The photo spot is narrow and always crowded, so step up, take the shot and move on.
Libreria Acqua Alta – Probably the maddest bookshop in Europe: the books sit in gondolas, bathtubs and plastic tubs so they don't drown when the water rises. In the back courtyard the owner has built a staircase out of waterlogged volumes, and from it you look over the wall on to the canal - that is what everyone comes for. Cats wander between the shelves, and somewhere in there you do find an actual book. It's cramped and rarely empty, but a short stop is worth it.
Rialto Bridge – Until 1854 the Rialto was the only fixed crossing over the Grand Canal; before that a series of wooden bridges stood here. The stone bridge of 1591 was considered a gamble: around 12,000 driven piles carry it and contemporaries openly bet on its collapse. Small shops line its back, so the top is packed - the better view is from below anyway, from the bank or the Fondamenta del Vin. If you want it empty, you have to be there at sunrise.

Rialto market, Accademia & Dorsoduro

Day two starts early at the Rialto fish market, crosses the Accademia bridge to the two great museums of Dorsoduro - Venetian painting with Bellini and Titian, modern art with Peggy Guggenheim - and ends at the white domed church of Santa Maria della Salute. To finish, you ride the length of the Grand Canal by vaporetto.

Rialto Market – Trade has gone on here for about a thousand years, and the fish market under the arcades is still the Venetians' real market rather than a backdrop for it. On the ice lie things you rarely see anywhere else: spider crabs, cuttlefish with their ink, tiny moleche, the crabs caught mid-moult. Come early, they pack up around midday, and the fish market is closed all day Sunday and Monday. Next door are the fruit and vegetable stalls and a few bacari where the first glass of wine at nine in the morning is entirely normal.
Accademia Gallery – The Accademia covers Venetian painting from its beginnings to the 18th century, and it is far more than a museum duty: Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese hang here in a density you find nowhere else. The famous one is Veronese's huge Feast in the House of Levi, originally a Last Supper - the Inquisition objected to the dwarfs, dogs and drunks in it, so he simply renamed the painting. Leonardo's Vitruvian Man belongs to the collection too, but is rarely on show. Allow at least an hour and a half; Mondays are closed. Afterwards it's only a few steps south to the Zattere, the long sunny promenade on the Giudecca canal - in the afternoon the light is just right here, with benches, ice cream places and ships gliding past.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection – In 1949 Peggy Guggenheim bought the never-finished Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal and lived there with her collection for thirty years. Today Pollock, Picasso, Ernst, Magritte, Kandinsky and Dalí hang in living-room-sized spaces instead of museum halls - one of the best collections of classic modern art in Europe. In the sculpture garden she is buried herself, right beside her dogs. On the terrace facing the canal stands Marino Marini's rider, and the view over the water comes free.
Santa Maria della Salute – The white domed church at the tip of Dorsoduro is the city's thank-you to the Madonna after the plague of 1630 killed about a third of the population. It stands on more than a million driven wooden piles, otherwise the soft ground could never carry the weight. Inside it is surprisingly bright and plain; the sacristy holds works by Titian and Tintoretto's Wedding at Cana. Every 21 November the city builds a pontoon bridge across the Grand Canal and Venetians walk over - the Festa della Salute, one of the few days when the church really belongs to them.
Vaporetto line 1 (Grand Canal) – Instead of a pricey gondola ride: line 1 chugs the entire length of the Grand Canal and stops almost everywhere. You pass around 170 palaces, all of them turning their show façade to the water, because for centuries the canal was the main street. Stand at the open stern, where you see both banks and nobody blocks your shot. The ride is loveliest just before sunset when the façades turn warm - and with a day pass it costs you nothing extra.

Getting there & around

There are no cars in Venice: you walk, or you take an ACTV vaporetto. Single rides are pricey, so from two trips a day a 24, 48 or 72 hour pass almost always pays off. Distances are short, but the many stepped bridges make wheeled suitcases and prams a pain. Payment is in euros. On many days in spring and summer day visitors pay an access fee - if you stay overnight in the city you are exempt, check it on the city's site beforehand. And a practical one: the places right on St Mark's Square are tourist traps, a few lanes further you eat better for less.

Going out & nightlife

Rooftop bars

Skyline Rooftop Bar – Eighth floor on the Giudecca, on top of the Hilton Molino Stucky, and the best sunset spot in town: all of Venice lies opposite you, with the Campanile and the Salute in the skyline. Drinks are priced accordingly, but honestly you are paying for the view. Booking is worth it, and in winter the glass fronts are up, which means a lot of reflections.

Nightlife quarters

Campo Santa Margherita – The student square in Dorsoduro and one of the few places where evenings feel alive instead of full of day trippers. Bars line the long campo, a spritz costs next to nothing, and everyone just stands outside on the square. Not a slick nightlife district but everyday Venice - which is exactly why it works for an evening.

Food & restaurants

Osteria alle Testiere – A tiny fish restaurant in Castello with just a handful of tables. The menu follows whatever was on the Rialto market that morning, and the wine list is excellent. Without a reservation weeks ahead you won't get in - with so few seats there is simply no other way.

Bars & clubs

Il Mercante – A cocktail bar on the canal near the Frari, a cafe by day and one of the city's most ambitious bars at night. The menu changes by theme and is completely redesigned each time. Small, dark, very good - and usually packed, so don't turn up too late.

Stage & concerts

Teatro La Fenice – Burnt down twice, rebuilt twice - the phoenix in the name is the whole story of this opera house. It is one of Italy's most beautiful, and you don't even need a performance: by day you get into the auditorium and the boxes with an audio guide. Mornings are quietest, and opera tickets are best booked early.

See all stops for Venice in the app →