Venice is a brightly-coloured, sparkling jewel in Italy’s crown. The city has a population of 264,000 residents and an eye-watering 20 million visitors a year.
But it’s not just the quaint canals and incredible food that draws in the crowds – and that’s certainly not all you should do if you’re planning a trip to the city.
By all means hitch a ride in a gondola, if you’re feeling really brave you can pay €2 and take a standing ride across the grand canal like the locals.
And yes, you should pay a visit to Piazza San Marco on your travels – it would be almost impossible not to stumble into the tourist hive on a trip to Venice.
There are plenty of beautiful sights you should see that are off the beaten track where you’ll get a taste of the real Venice – not a selfie stick for miles.
Rialto Bridge – FREE
For those of you who have been to Venice before you will know that is one of the most popular places for tourists to flock.
The bridge is one of the oldest pieces of architecture in Venice and a stunning sight to behold.
If you choose to congregate on the bridge, you’ll be tussled around by the hundreds of others who decided to get a selfie from the top.
Here’s a top tip, there’s a Co-op shop on the south side of the bridge – grab a drink from the shop and mosey on down the Riva Ferro to the end where you can perch on a jetty and admire the chaos from afar and get one of the best pictures in town.
Cicchetti & Wine Tour of Venice – €80
Urban Adventures have a variety of tours on offer to soak up the sights of Venice – and they’re far from a hop-on hop-off bus.
The Cicchetti & Wine Tour is a private, and very snazzy, boat tour with a lovely Venetian guide. Sit back and let Simona and the captain of the boat show you the best of Venice with a glass of wine in hand.
A range of local cicchetti – small bites – are offered up alongside several different wines and a personal guide to the city.
Get a history lesson while sipping wine, or sit back and enjoy the ride for 2.5 hours.
And yes, you get to gloat as you ride past the hustle and bustle of the Rialto Bridge in the peace and tranquility of your own private boat.
The tour is a small group: a maximum of 12 people. For more information visit the Urban Adventures website.
Bridge of Sighs – €80
Ponte dei Sospiri – The Bridge of Sighs to us Brits – is one of the most famous bridges in the world not just in Venice.
The covered bridge, which passes over Rio di Palazzo, connects Doge’s Palace to the prisons built across the canal in the 16th century.
The best way to see this is to hop on a gondola and ask the gondolier to swing by to avoid the crowds.
If you pre-book, I used Viator, you can get a shared ride for £25pp – or you can hire a private Gondola for €80 in the day for 30 minutes.
Ristorante Sempione – €18
Don’t be fooled into eating in a tourist trap on Piazza San Marco – however nice the live music and white table cloths might look.
The Ristorante Sempione, just off the Mercer S. Zulian, is a small, local Italian restaurant.
Reviews on TripAdvisor are mixed but if you can grab a table in the window, you’re set for a lovely evening of gondola watching.
Recommendations: caprese salad to start, the spaghetti bolognese and the panna cotta.
Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute – FREE
If you can, hop on the vaporetto (water bus) and get off at the stop marked Salute.
Strolling around Venice you will have seen the outline of the stunning Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute sat guarding the entrance to the Grand Canal.
The 17th-century domed church was commissioned by Venice’s plague survivors as thanks for their salvation – and it’s a stunning, and free, sight to see.
You can walk all the way around it, grab a sandwich before getting on the vaporetto and sit on the edge of the canal watching the world go by.
Or sit on the steps of the church and have a picture while watching the vaporetto and boats dashing along the canal.
Hilton Molino Stucky – £130
Choosing a place to stay in Venice can be tricky, especially when it comes to deciding whether you want to be in the centre or out the outskirts.
The Hilton Molino Stucky is on Giudecca, which is a boat ride away from the main bulk of Venice.
It’s a large hotel dripping with marble floors and stunning Italian furnishings.
Request a room with a canal view as there’s nothing better than waking up to sunrise over the water.
There’s a rooftop bar that serves the best wine and stunning cocktails where visitors from across the city flock to take in the skyline of Venice.
After a busy day of negotiating the winding streets of the inner city there is nothing nicer than coming back to the calm, tranquil corridors of the Hilton.
And the hotel puts on its own private water boat for guests which runs across the city and back several times an hour, through the day and night. This costs just €6pp for the duration of your stay. For more information visit the Hilton website
