Rick Steves - Rick Steves Venice

Gondoliers plying a Venetian canal

VENICE

Engineers love Venicea completely man-made environment rising from the sea, with no visible means of support. Romantics revel in its atmosphere of elegant decay, seeing the peeling plaster and seaweed-covered stairs as a metaphor for beauty in decline. And first-time visitors are often stirred deeply, awaking from their ordinary lives to a fantasy world unlike anything theyve ever experienced before.

Those are strong reactions, considering that Venice today, frankly, can also be an overcrowded, prepackaged, tacky tourist trap. But Venice is unique. Built on a hundred islands with wealth from trade with the East, its exotic-looking palaces are laced together by sun-speckled canals. The car-free streets suddenly make walkers feel big, important, and liberated. Its basically one giant amusement park for grown-ups, centuries in the making. And yet, the longer youre hereand the more you explore its back streetsthe clearer it becomes that this is also a real, living town, with its own personality and challenges.

By day, Venice is a city of museums and churches, packed with great art. Everythings within a half-hour walk. Cruise the canals on a vaporetto water bus. Climb towers for stunning seascape views. Shop for Venetian crafts (such as glass and lace), high fashions, or tacky souvenirs. Linger over lunch, trying to crack a crustacean with weird legs and antennae. Sip a spritz at a caf on St. Marks Square while the orchestra plays New York, New York.

At night, when the hordes of day-trippers have gone, another Venice appears. Dance across a floodlit square. Glide in a gondola through quiet canals while music echoes across the water. Pretend its Carnevale time, don a maskor just a fresh shirtand become someone else for a night.

Use this legend to help you navigate the maps in this book.

Rick Steves Venice is a personal tour guide in your pocket. Better yet, its actually two tour guides in your pocket: The co-author of this book is Gene Openshaw. Since our first Europe through the gutter trip together as high school buddies in the 1970s, Gene and I have been exploring the wonders of the Old World. An inquisitive historian and lover of European culture, Gene wrote most of this books self-guided museum tours and neighborhood walks. Together, Gene and I keep this book current (though for simplicity, from this point we will shed our respective egos and become I).

In this book, youll find the following chapters:

Orientation to Venice includes specifics on public transportation, helpful hints, local tour options, easy-to-read maps, and tourist information. The Planning Your Time section suggests a schedule for how to best use your limited time.

Sights in Venice describes the top attractions and includes their cost and hours.

The Self-Guided Walks cover Venices back streets. The walk from St. Marks to Rialto follows a less touristy route between these two major landmarks, then loops back via Venices high-end (and tourist-packed) shopping drag. The walk from Rialto to the Frari Church (with its exquisite art) takes you through bustling markets and by a mask-making shop. The walk from St. Marks to San Zaccaria explores the area behind the basilica, featuring a historic church and a seldom-seen view of the famous Bridge of Sighs.

The Self-Guided Tours lead you through Venices most fascinating museums and sights: the Grand Canal, St. Marks Square, St. Marks Basilica, Doges Palace, Correr Museum, Accademia, Frari Church, Scuola San Rocco, Ca Rezzonico (Museum of 18th-Century Venice), Peggy Guggenheim Collection, La Salute Church, San Giorgio Maggiore, and the islands in Venices lagoon (including San Michele, Murano, Burano, and Torcello).

Key to This Book

Updates

This book is updated regularlybut once you pin down Italy, it wiggles. For the latest, visit www.ricksteves.com/update.

Abbreviations and Times

I use the following symbols and abbreviations in this book:

Sights are rated: