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Best of Venice
The Basilica di San Marco
Saint Mark's Basilica is a monument made unique by both its wealth of history and the magnificence of its façade and interior. In essence, it is a splendid workshop, where, through the centuries, worked great Italian and European artists. Its distinguishing Byzantine character appears particularly on the great mosaics illustrating St. Marco's tales, as well as the scenes of the Old and New Testament.
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 Gondola
A gondola is a traditional Venetian rowing boat. Gondolas were for centuries the chief means of transportation within Venice and still have a role in public transport, serving as traghètti (ferries) over major canals.
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.
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.
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