Odds & Ends

General Information

Venice travel news
Longer church hours, La Fenice opera house, Venice Marathon.

Reader's report: A Venice trip
Beth Cordes Thompson offers advice on a hotel, restaurants, the Palazzo Ducale, and a bead shop.

Tourist Fines for Bad Behavior
Venice's public officials make it easy to match your misdemeanor to your budget.

Venice Tourism Statistics
The City of Venice's annual "Yearbook of Tourism" is packed with interesting data, and the month-by-month numbers can help you avoid peak-season visitor crowds.

Archeology

Piazza San Marco Archeology Dig
Archeologists have found ancient skeletons and ruins of a demolished church in Venice's main square.

Art

Bottega del Tintoretto
Learn printmaking and other art techniques in a 15th Century Venetian master's workshop.

Boat Charters

Venice Boat Rentals
Cruise the Venetian Lagoon as captain of your own vessel with a self-drive Penichette from Locaboat Holidays.

Canals

Maintaining Venice's Canals
Over the decades, the smaller canals of Venice become clogged with silt and other debris. Cleaning out the gunk is a messy and time-consuming task.

Cocktails

Venetian Spritz
Grey-haired Venetians may prefer white wine, and tourists from the Temple Fielding era can't resist Bellinis. But for today's younger locals, students, and visitors in Venice, the Spritz is the drink of choice.

Cruises

Venice Cruises
This page tells how to reach your cruise ship from the airport and includes links to other articles of interest to cruise passengers.

MSC Poesia Eastern Mediterranean Cruise
Our illustrated 10-page Europe for Cruisers review describes a roundtrip cruise from Venice to Istanbul on an Italian megaship with five official languages and a thoroughly European atmosphere.

Drinking water

Is Venice's tap water safe to drink?
The city's water comes from deep wells on the Venetian mainland, and you can fill your water bottles for free at 122 public fountains in the Centro Storico or historic center.

Flooding

Acqua Alta
High tide, low atmospheric pressure, and a scirocco wind can make Venice feel like Atlantis. Our illustrated article tells what to expect and how to prepare for "high water."

Movies & Videos

Venice Movies and Videos
Peek at Venice before you visit, or refresh happy memories with our library of recommended feature films and travelogues.

The Wings of the Dove
An appealing movie set in the Venice of 1910, based on the novel by Henry James. (Q: Can you identify the mistake in the publicity photo?)

Photos

Vintage Venice: 1999
Browse through scanned and captioned Kodachrome slides from yesteryear.

Spa Treatments

Hotel Cipriani's 'Gondola Massage'
Pressed for time and stressed by a tight vacation schedule? Get a soothing spa treatment and see the sights in one two-hour session.

Tours

Venice Gondola Serenade Tour
It sounded like kitsch, but floating down a canal with a baritone and a guitarist in the next gondola turned out to be fun--and maybe even a little magical.

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