Water-buses
As soon as you arrive in Venice
buy an ACTV travel card. Available
for one day, three days or seven,
it allows unlimited use of the
water-bus network - essential if
you want to see the hotspots.
The Basilica di San Marco
Clad in lustrous mosaics and
crammed with precious objects, the
Basilica di San Marco is the most
exotic of Europe's cathedrals. Get
there early, as it's the city's
number one sight and attracts
enormous crowds.
The Gallerie dell'Accademia
The Accademia gallery gives you a
crash-course in Venetian painting
from the fourteenth to the
eighteenth centuries. Featuring
Titian, all the Bellini clan,
Tintoretto, Veronese and the
Tiepolos, it's Venice's top museum
by far.
The Frari
After San Marco, the Frari is the
one Venetian church you have to
visit. A colossal brick hulk, it
houses a batch of the city's best
pictures, and a great range of
monuments.
Do Mori
Hidden in a tiny alley by the
Rialto market, Do Mori is
an utterly genuine bar. No tables,
no seats - just good wine,
delicious snacks and as friendly a
welcome as you'll find in Venice.
The Scuola Grande di San Rocco
Next to the Frari stands the
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, a
mind-blowing showcase for the art
of Tintoretto. A highlight of the
fifty-picture cycle is the
enormous and overwhelmingly
intense Crucifixion.
Paradiso Perduto
Venetian nightlife is notoriously
tepid, but Paradiso Perduto
- a bar-cum-restaurant-cum-music
venue - is generally the liveliest
joint in town. Turn up around
10pm, when the local students
should be out in force.
The Island of San Pietro
For a taste of authentic Venice
take a stroll up Via Garibaldi to
the island of San Pietro, once the
ecclesiastical centre of Venice,
nowadays a backwater district
where the chief activity is the
repairing of boats.
Torcello
Torcello in its fourteenth-century
prime was home to 20,000 people.
Today the population is about 100,
but Venice's first cathedral is
still there, and the place is
steeped in the charisma of its
past.
San Giorgio Maggiore
One of Venice's immediately
recognizable landmarks, San
Giorgio Maggiore is a perfect
Palladian church, and its bell
tower gives the finest bird's-eye
view of the city.
