Insight Guides - Explore Venice : the best routes around the city

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With top-quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the worlds most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destinations many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also excursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments options are shown in the Food and Drink box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised AZ of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafs and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, plus a handy language guide and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

2014 Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

Architecture fans

Highlights include St Marks Basilica ().

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Art buffs

Dont miss the Accademia ().

Bridgeman

Children

Head up the bell tower in Piazza San Marco ().

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Film fans

Admire Grand Canal palaces from Casino Royale (), where Dont Look Now was filmed.

Alamy

Foodies

Try Cannaregio ().

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Music lovers

Tour La Fenice ().

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Romantics

Lap up the Grand Canal on a late-night ferry (); take an atmospheric gondola ride; or simply fall for Venice in the winter mists.

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Shoppers

West of San Marco () for glass.

Alamy

The gilded mosaics of St Marks Basilica

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Explore Venice

More like a stage set than a city, Venice has captivated visitors for centuries. La Serenissima is one of the wonders of the world. This guide reveals the show-stopping sights and secret corners of this gloriously mesmerising place.

Endlessly portrayed by writers, painters and philosophers, Venice is a canvas for every clichd fantasy. Almost everyone who is anyone has been there. As a result, Venice can play cultural one-upmanship better than most cities. The Romantics were rewarded with a feeling of having come too late to a world too old. The Victorians saw Venice as dying, while contemporary doom-mongers now seek to bury the city anew. Although entombment by the sea would show symmetry, this resilient city rejects such neat scenarios, with new life and vitality being pumped through its veins.

The only city in the world built entirely on water, Venice is no mere fantasy land, but a superior theme park that can uplift the spirit. You can sleep in Tchaikovskys bed or wake up in cavernous apartments that once welcomed princes and doges, Henry James and Hemingway. For romance, you can literally walk in Casanovas footsteps; for Baroque passion, succumb to a Vivaldi concerto in Vivaldis church, or savour the gondoliers songs that inspired Verdi and Wagner. If feeling adventurous, explore the world of Marco Polo in his home city, bargain in the Rialto with latter-day merchants of Venice, or pick up the cobalt-blue cabbages that sent Elizabeth David into culinary raptures.

If feeling contemplative, you can ponder the passing of time with Prousts ghost in Caff Florian. If fortunate, you can capture Canalettos views with your camera or see Titians painting in the church it was designed for. If gregarious, you can savour the gossip and Martinis at Harrys Bar, Hemingways favourite. The morbid can play roulette in Wagners death chamber, now the city casino, or quietly contemplate death on Thomas Manns Lido.