As recently as just one
generation ago Venice was a
night city, where the residents
of each parish set out tables on
the street at the flimsiest
excuse. Nowadays, with the
pavements overrun by outsiders,
the social life of the Venetians
is more of an indoor business -
a restaurant meal or a drink
with friends might feature in
most people's diary for the
week, and a conversational
stroll is certainly a favourite
Venetian pastime, but home
entertainment takes up most time
and energy. That said, Venice's
calendar of special events is
pretty impressive, with the
Carnevale, the Film Festival and
the Biennale ranking among the
continent's hottest dates. To
find out what's on in the way of
concerts and films, check
Un
Ospite di Venezia , a free
bilingual magazine available
from the tourist office and some
of the more expensive hotels -
it's produced weekly in peak
season, monthly in winter.
Information and listings for
bars, events, festivals can also
be found at.
Music and
theater
Music in Venice, to all intents
and purposes, means classical
music - rock bands rarely come
nearer than Padua, and big names
stop at Verona. The top-bracket
music venues are La Fenice
(temporarily rehoused on
Tronchetto) and the Teatro...
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Cinema
English-language films are the
basic fare for Venice's
moviegoers, and virtually every
screening is dubbed rather than
subtitled. From around mid-July
to the end of August, however,
an open-air cinema in Campo S.
Polo shows dubbed or
Italian-language...
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more >>
Discos and clubs
Venice is notorious for its lack
of decent nightlife, relying
mostly on the handful of late
bars dotted around the city. The
most buzzing area, particularly
in winter, is along the
Fondamenta della Misericordia,
in Cannaregio, where Iguana, Le
Notti...
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more >>
The
Casino
Only one aspect of Venice's
nightlife attracts the kids from
the mainland, and that's the
Casin๒ , one of only half a
dozen in the entire country. The
Saturday night migration is a
strange sight - the vaporetto
pulls in at the dismal
Tronchetto...
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more >>
Special exhibitions - and the
Biennale
As if the profusion of
galleries, museums and
picture-stuffed churches weren't
enough, Venice boasts a phalanx
of venues for special
exhibitions . Listed below are
the places where you'll find the
first-rank shows, with an
indication of the...
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more >>
Festivals
Venice celebrates
enthusiastically a number of
special days either not
observed elsewhere in Italy,
or, like the Carnevale,
celebrated to a lesser extent.
Although they have gone
through various degrees of
decline and revival, the form
they take now is still related
very strongly to their
traditional character.
