Venice Sightseeing/Culture

ABOVE: Directional signs help tourists find their bearings while exploring Venice.

General articles

Venice's Top 11 Free Sights veniceforvisitors.com
Many of the city's greatest experiences won't cost you a euro--and by trimming your sightseeing costs, you'll have more cash left over for room, board, and shopping.

Sightseeing and Places of Interest veniceforvisitors.com
From Venice for Visitors, an index of illustrated articles on everything from the Piazza San Marco to an island cemetery where graves are recycled after 12 years.

Venice Gondola Serenade Tour  veniceforvisitors.com
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.

Amerigo Vespucci Sailing Ship  veniceforvisitors.com
From time to time, the Italian Naval Academy's three-masted training ship comes to Venice. If you see it during your visit, ask about public tours.

Tours and Excursions

Viator Tours & Excursions: Venice our partner
Prebook city tours, gondola rides, and regional day trips online before you leave home. (Prices are guaranteed in euros, British pounds, and U.S. or Australian dollars.)

WalksInsideVenice veniceforvisitors.com
Three vivacious, intelligent, and highly educated Venetian guides have teamed up to offer private tours for individuals, families, and small groups. Two of the women are authors, and the third is an art expert who leads tours for the Biennale.

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

Chioggia veniceforvisitors.com
The largest fishing and yachting town on the Venetian Lagoon is an easy day or overnight trip from Venice by car or--better yet--by boat. (Also see Venice to Chioggia by Bus and Ferry.)

Vicenza veniceforvisitors.com
The magnificently preserved home town of Andrea Palladio, one of Italy's greatest architects, is less than an hour from Venice by train.

Venice Tourist Guides Association
The A.G.T. Venezia can hook you up with licensed guides who speak 13 languages. (Warning: This poorly-designed site may attempt to install an ActiveX control on your computer.)

The Venice Experience
Mike and Karen, an American expat couple, will take you on a private sightseeing tour, a cicchetti pub crawl, a photography tour, or a food-shopping and cooking excursion.

Venicescapes
Michael Broderick offers private guided walking tours with themes like "Story of a Mercantile Empire" and "Crimes of State" that are based on extensive historical research. Ask him to tell you about the favorite poison of the Renaissance after you've read my article on VeniceScapes.

Teatro La Fenice
Take a guided tour of Venice's fabled opera house.

The Cicerone Self-Guided Tours: Venice
This recorded tour starts at the Piazza San Marco and wends its way through the historic center to the Rialto Bridge. It's available on audiocassette or as an MP3 file and includes a printed map. (Hear a sample online.)

I Batelli di Brenta (The Brenta River's Boats)
Boats leave Venice or Padua in the morning for an all-day trip through the Brenta Canal that includes stops at three Venetian villas and the 16th Century mills at Dolo. Other excursions, including a half-day trip from Dolo to Venice, are also available.

Cruisingvenice.com (Eolo)
Explore the Venetian Lagoon on one of the few remaining bragozzo sailboats, which have flat bottoms for sailing and fishing in shallow water. Choose from 1-, 3-, and 8-day itineraries, or plan your own route through the Laguna with the captain's help.

Delta Tour: Brenta Riviera and Venetian Villas
The excursion boat Città di Padova offers day cruises along the Brenta Canal from Venice, with stops at historic villas and lunch on board.

Palazzetto da Schio
Bring your tour group for a visit with an aristocratic Venetian family. You can also plan a reception with a Venetian hostess, book rooms or the garden for a party, or rent one of three apartments furnished with antiques.

Bridges

Accademia Bridge veniceforvisitors.com
Venice's third bridge across the Grand Canal wasn't built until 1854. The current wooden bridge (a replica of a temporary bridge from 1932) offers great views of the canal and passing boat traffic.

Bridge of Sighs veniceforvisitors.com
Lord Byron romanticized this elevated corridor for criminals, and you can cross it as a paying customer rather than as a prisoner.

Ponte di Calatrava veniceforvisitors.com
The Spanish architect's new bridge across the Grand Canal will open this summer, if all goes well, giving tourists an alternative to the Ponte dei Scalzi.

Rialto Bridge veniceforvisitors.com
It isn't just a Brooklyn Bridge with boutiques. After 500 years, the Ponte di Rialto is still Venice's main traffic route across the Grand Canal.

Cemetery

To Die in Venice veniceforvisitors.com
When you gotta go, you gotta go--and dead Venetians have been going to the island cemetery of San Michele for 200 years.

Churches

Basilica di San Marco veniceforvisitors.com
St. Mark's Basilica is a treasurehouse of mosaics, plunder from the Crusades, and over-the-top Byzantine architecture, but read our tips for visitors before you wrestle with the crowds.

Santa Maria della Salute Church veniceforvisitors.com
As you stare up at the soaring dome of this magnificent basilica, remember that it owes its existence to plague-ridden fleas.

Madonna dell'Orto veniceforvisitors.com
"Venice's finest Gothic church" is a great starting point for a walking tour through one of the city's most pleasant but least touristed neighborhoods.

Other Information

A Lover of Venice
Read the article on the Venetian locations in Summertime (the David Lean movie starring Katherine Hepburn), then browse the illustrated walking tours. (The latter are linked from the bottom of the Hidden Corners page.)

History and Curiosity
Facts and trivia about history, landmarks, and traditions. From Venetia.

Jewish Community of Venice
Europe's first ghetto was in Venice, where Jewish settlers played an important role in the Venetian Republic's economic life and daily affairs.

The Ancient Jewish Cemetery at The Lido of Venice
Claire Turyn's photo essay is accompanied by Stefano Levi della Torre's text.

Palladio's Italian Villas
Venice's great Renaissance architect built grand country houses throughout the Veneto region. Many are open to the public today.

Palaces in Venice: Palazzi Veneziani
Jan-Christoph Rößler's comprehensive index has photos and architectural descriptions of more than 140 palazzi. (The site is available in both English and German.)

Venice
Philip Greenspun serves up photos and descriptions of Venice, with personal tips on hotels, restaurants, and shopping.

Venice: From Museum to City
Brief descriptions of art museums and churches, including opening times and convenient vaporetto stops.

Religious Painting
This article on Catholic art has a section titled "Venice and the Schools of Northern Italy" that discusses the paintings of Carpaccio, Giogione, and other Venetian artists from a church historian's point of view.

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