Superlatives for Venice abound. You’ll choose your own when you’ve been there. For me, in its literal sense, that much overused word “awesome” is just about right. Venice inspires awe. Just the building of the present city between say the 11^th century and the 18^th century was an amazing accomplishment. Built, as all the huge palaces and churches are, on dozens of islands joined together by hundreds of bridges, it would probably give even modern architects and engineers some headaches. And it is not all standing on solid islands. For example, the church of the Salute (by our standards cathedral size) constructed between 1630 and 1687, stands entirely on wooden piles driven into the bottom of the lagoon: no less than 1,156,627 of them (although who counted so precisely in the 17^th century I’m not sure).

Crowds: People tend to say Venice is crowded. If you stay on the main street (Strada Nuova) or around St. Mark’s Square then, yes, it can be crowded. But then you can often find quite a few souls on Oxford Street or in Piccadilly Circus in London. If you visit some of the residential areas of the city ( not more than 10 minutes’ walk from the centre) you will find deserted canals and quiet leafy squares to relax in.

If you are into hostels, I had a peek into the official Youth Hostel on the Giudecca island and that looks quite good. I guess you would have to book well in advance. The only problem with this hostel is its island location: you will be obliged to have a vaporetto pass for your whole stay just to go backwards and forwards, which can be costly if you are on a very tight budget.
I think here the best thing to do would be for you to choose a few places from the innumerable sites offering accommodation and then let me give you my thoughts, at least as far as location and price are concerned.

Transport: It is not always appreciated that you can see 99% of Venice on foot. However, it’s bigger than you think and it’s a tiring city (up and down all those bridges all day!). A three day pass on the water buses (vaporetti) costs €30 and is well worth it. You’ll probably recoup your money on the first day (bear in mind that the minimum ordinary fare, even for only one stop, is €6). Try always to travel outside “on deck” as you can see very little from inside and they can get very crowded and stuffy. I am not as young as I was and I try to restrict my serious sightseeing to the mornings. After lunch I take one of the longer vaporetti routes out into the lagoon and rest up. The vaporetto stops at different islands and there is lots of bird life to see on the way. I often don’t get off – just do the round trip, which can take up to 2 ½ hours on some routes ( no.13 for example).

Do not under any circumstances take a water taxi, these are ruinously expensive, although if you are arriving at Venice airport the collective water taxi system to the city “Alilaguna” is ok. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the gondolas. Expensive? Yes. Touristy? Very. But……you want to try everything once, don’t you?. If you get a group of 4-6 people together and split the cost, then it’s acceptable (they’ll probably ask €60/70 for half an hour). And you don’t get to Venice every day!

Food & Drink: The general rule is the further away you get from St. Mark’s Square the cheaper it is going to be to eat. I am not a gourmet so I can’t recommend any special restaurants. I usually make do with panini at lunchtime and pizza in the evening with perhaps the once a trip splurge at a trattoria before I leave. There are so many good little bars where you can eat and I have not heard many complaints. Don’t sit down (either outside or inside) unless you want to pay a surcharge. I often take the vaporetto to the Lido (15 minutes from St. Mark’s) where the food prices are “normal Italian” and you can have a stroll along the beach after. This is the beach where Lord Byron and Shelley went horse-riding and of course where Thomas Mann set “Death in Venice”. Or you can drop into a supermarket (there’s one called “Billa” near the Lido vaporetto station) and buy a few rolls and some Parma ham and munch away on the beach, maybe washing it down with a glass or three of what you fancy. While you are on your way out to the Lido look back towards the city. The view is truly sublime (and “sublime” is a word I do not use lightly). Don’t whatever you do try to eat your sandwiches sitting on the steps in St. Mark’s square. This year it has been banned for reasons of decorum (in my view quite rightly). If you are caught you will be politely asked to move on, but if you start to argue (as unfortunately many Anglo-Saxon tourists do) you may be fined.

Here I have to make a confession: once every trip I go to Florian’s coffee-house on St. Mark’s Square for breakfast. Just to indulge myself and to soak up the atmosphere (inside the cafe, not outside). You pay about €12 for a coffee and brioche or €29 for full breakfast, but the décor and the history of the place are worth it. Be aware of the music surcharge if you sit outside and the orchestra is playing. One restaurant/osteria I can vouch for if you want to splash out and like something fishy: Osteria da Alberto just look for its reviews on google. Not cheap but not ruinously expensive, and the food is really excellent. You may have to book a few hours before.

The national drink of the Venetians is the spritz. It is a long drink just right for that aperitivo after a heavy morning sightseeing: chilled white wine, a slug of Aperol or Campari, tonic water, slice of orange, one green olive. I’m getting thirsty just thinking about it.

Things to see: I’m a socks-with-sandals tourist, so nothing strenuous here. You want something breathtaking? Take an early morning slow vaporetto (no.1) along the whole length of the Grand Canal and see the sunrise painting the palaces and the Rialto Bridge pink. It will take nearly an hour. The only other traffic will be barges taking produce to the Rialto markets and the occasional post office or refuse collecting barge. Must get up before the tourists though. And unless the weather is very very warm, wrap up well. It can be quite chilly on the canals and lagoon in the early morning and evening. Now, having got up and enjoyed the sunrise, what do you do next? Unfortunately Venice is not really a place for early risers. Most things, including shops, open at about 10 a.m. Bars will be open of course for your first cappuccino of the day (but not Florian’s which opens at 10). Luckily the state-run Accademia opens at 8.15 (see below) and the Naval Museum at 8.45.

There is no point in my listing all the sights you can find in any guidebook. St. Mark’s Basilica is magnificent of course, as is the Doge’s Palace. You might find long queues to get in. Try arriving before they open in the morning, or possibly during lunchtime when the tourists are back in their hotels browsing and sluicing. Some of my favourite things to see and do are as follows: If you are an art fanatic the Accademia is a must but it can be a bit overpowering. If, like me, you just like a bit of art now and then, a good idea is the “Chorus Pass” which you can buy in tourist offices, hotels, or the churches themselves. Bearing in mind that you have to pay to get into almost all Venetian churches, the pass gives you access to 16 churches. It costs €9 and is valid for a year (single admission to each church would be €3). There you will see all the Titians, Veroneses, Tintorettos, Tiepolos, you could wish to see. As well as lots of other things as well. The Frari church is included in the pass and is really a must. The nearby “Scuola di San Rocco” is not included but should be visited for a feast of Tintorettos. While we are on the subject of churches, Venice is the only place I know of where Old Testament figures have been accorded sainthood: St. Job, St. Jeremiah, St. Moses (Ruskin hated the façade of S. Moisè with its baroque “ wedding-cake” style). San Sebastiano, also on the Chorus Pass is well worth a visit. It’s in the Dorsoduro area, near the old Maritime Station, and just about everything in it is by Veronese: the frescos, the pictures, the ceiling and, fittingly, his tomb is there as well.

You won’t find many paintings by Canaletto left in Venice, they are now mostly in foreign collections, including the Queen’s collection at Windsor Castle and the Duke of Bedford’s at Woburn Abbey. But there are one or two in the Ca’ Rezzonico gallery on the Grand Canal (this, by the way, is the palazzo in which Robert Browning died. It was owned by his son). If you are into modern art (I’m not) then go to the Guggenheim Collection – a short walk from the Accademia. For me the best thing in the Guggenheim is the restaurant where you can get a light meal. Their house red is superb!

Go back to the Accademia for a moment. As you face the building with your back to the Grand Canal there is a calle going down the right-hand side. Take it and you will come to a small canal. Walk down the canal for a few metres without crossing it and you will see on the other side a rare sight these days: a squero, i.e. a boat yard where gondolas are made and repaired by hand. There are very few squeri left in Venice. The workshop building is made of timber and rather resembles an alpine chalet, even down to the geraniums on the balcony.
The Ghetto is nice, and if you are interested the guided tour of the synagogues is well worth doing (they are all hidden away in incongruous looking buildings and interconnected by hidden passageways). Incidentally, this was the original ghetto: the area formerly being an old iron foundry, the word “ghetto” comes from the Venetian “ghettare” = to throw or to cast (i.e. iron). Just at the entrance to the Ghetto (approaching it from the Cannaregio Canal) is a lovely English bookshop called Old World Books run by an English gentleman of the old school.

For music lovers the museum of baroque musical instruments in Campo San Maurizio is worth seeing (and hearing). A CD of Venetian harpsichord music would make a nice and not expensive souvenir of Venice instead of some of the tourist tat on sale around the Piazzetta. Go to the Murano glass factories only if you have to. There is not much to see and they will try to sell you expensive items which are not necessarily made there. You can see plenty of lovely glass in the shop windows of Venice itself. The islands of Burano and Torcello are worth a visit (perhaps in the afternoon, see above) but they may be crowded. One island not to miss is San Lazzaro which is the home of an Armenian monastery. It is open only for 2 hours each afternoon and the visit is guided by a rather comical monk (or was when I was there). This is where Byron stayed 6 months to learn Armenian: vaporetto no.20 from near St. Mark’s. You could also go island hopping by taking the no.11 bus from the Lido to Pellestrina, a fishing village at the western end of the string of islands that form the southern (sea) approaches to Venice. At one point the bus gets loaded onto a small ferry to pass from one island to the other. If you are into cemeteries, the island of San Michele is just for you. You’ll find the graves of Stravinsky, Dhiagalev (have I spelt that correctly?), Ezra Pound, but you’ll have to look hard for them. If you like scary things, the lovely old Jewish cemetery on the Lido will do the trick. The more abandoned areas resemble a set out of the Addams Family.

If the weather turns bad on you there are of course all the art galleries and museums. Something different, if you like classical music, would be a harpsichord recital which they give on a few afternoons a weeks in the Querini-Stampalia gallery in Piazza Santa Maria Formosa.