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🇮🇹 City · Italy
Venice: La Serenissima on the water
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Venice is divided into six sestieri, and you move from one to the next across bridges and alleys. San Marco, the monumental heart, gathers St. Mark's Square, its Byzantine basilica and the Doge's Palace, along with most of the hotels and restaurants. Just to the west, calmer Dorsoduro holds the great museums and pretty spritz-side quays around Campo Santa Margherita. To the north, Cannaregio is one of the most authentic districts: home to many Venetians, around the old Jewish Ghetto and palaces such as the Ca' d'Oro. To grasp the city's soul, step away from the main routes, get lost in the calli and follow the side canals away from the crowds.
In “Casino Royale” (2006), James Bond sails the Grand Canal as a palazzo collapses into the water near the Rialto.
Venice rests on millions of petrified larch piles; the Salute church alone stands on over a million driven underwater.
Vino Vero, on Fondamenta della Misericordia in Cannaregio, was the first bacaro in Venice devoted to natural wines.
Spring and autumn are the best seasons: soft light and thinner crowds than the sometimes stifling peak summer. Everything is done on foot, over bridges and through alleys; to cross, the vaporetti (water buses) serve the Grand Canal and the islands, and the traghetto offers a short, cheap crossing. One tip: leave the Rialto-San Marco axis quickly to discover a calmer Venice. As for the network, 4G/5G mobile coverage is generally good in town and wifi is common in hotels and cafés; the signal can nonetheless weaken in some narrow alleys or out on the water between islands.