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Fiddler's Elbow
This place is representative of the Venetian Irish-pub genre. It's warm and cosy, and in summer tables are set up on the street. For all its supposed Irishness, it seems equally popular with locals as with strangers in need of a Guinness.
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Harry's Bar
Although it's also a place to eat, Harry's is, of course, first and foremost a bar. Everyone who is anyone passing through Venice usually ends up in Harry's sooner or later. The Aga Khan lounged around here, and other characters as diverse as Orson Welles, Ernest Hemingway and Truman Capote have all sipped a cocktail or two at Harry's.
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Il Caffè
A lively student bar with snacks, this place is known to locals affectionately as the caffè rosso because of the red sign. It is something of a classic, and on warmer nights the animated bustle at the outside tables is hard to pass up.
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Il Muretto
An army of DJs spins mostly house in this, one of the hippest summer dance locales set inland from Jesolo and the beach (you need a car or taxi to get here). Flyers can be seen floating around as far away as bars in Padua. A couple of other spots are located on the same road.
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Il Santo Bevitore
A straightforward canalside corner bar, the 'Holy Drinker' attracts beer-lovers and those in search of the occasional bit of live music, which usually takes place on Monday evening. Internet access is available here too.
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Imagina Café
A cheerful bar with high-backed red chairs and bright lights, Imagina Café is a bar with artistic pretensions. The walls are always hung with regularly changing paintings and/or photography, lending some visual interest to a prosecco stop.
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Improntacafé
A snazzy snack bar and restaurant by day, this place comes into its own as a be-seen-in wine bar with food in the evening. Sidle up to the bar for a goblet of fine Italian wine by the glass (around €3 .50 to around €4 ) or opt for a light sit-down meal and order a bottle!
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Inishark
This is a good, old, slightly gloomy Anglo-style pub in the heart of Castello, fine for pints of Guinness (and a selection of hearty ales) and football (on Sunday). A few bar snacks and panini are available, too.
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Interpreti Veneziani
Since the mid-1980s this group has been presenting concerts of, above all, Venetian music, in the Chiesa di San Vidal. Vivaldi, of course, heads the list, but the musicians handle other Italian masters and the occasional interloper such as Bach. Other than when the group is away on tour, the concert season lasts year-round. Performances generally start around .
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L'olandese Volante
The Flying Dutchman is basically a UK-style pub that attracts a curious mix of local students out for a beery night and tourists feeling a little nostalgic for…a beery night. The terrace gets vaguely rowdy on summer evenings.
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Laboratorio Occupato Morion
Want to dive into a little counter-culture? This oversized squat and social centre organises occasional concerts featuring bands from around the Veneto. Watch out for the posters around town to see what's coming up.
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Margaret Duchamp
This is a highly popular spot for a spritz and chat into the early hours. It attracts a hip mix of young wannabes and Biennale types with shades - you can't blame them, as you get the afternoon sun shining straight through your cocktail glass.
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Marina Club
It's nowhere near a marina and just down the road from Il Muretto. A sprawling place catering for folk of mixed ages, it boasts various open-air and semi-open air spaces, lounges, tall tables, plenty of greenery, gazebos, restaurants and sometimes live bands. People come to see and be seen, but there's not much dancing. Entry is free but the bouncers get tough from midnight.
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Metrò Venezia
This is basically a gay sauna, with various sauna and massage rooms but also a bar. Rather than a dark room it has a dark labyrinth! There's a deal for free entry into the Flexo Bar in Padua after your sauna here.
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Mojito Bar
A tiny slice of Caribbean on the Lido, run by traveller-friendly twin brothers Andrea and Giovanni, this place (known affectionately as il baretto , the little bar) is the happening bar in the summer months. When nothing else is going on in, say, October, this is the place to be for beers, cocktails with fresh fruit (around €5 .50) and Latin sounds.
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Multisala Astra
Here you'll find a broad range of art-house movies and mainstream releases, much along the lines of the programme at the Giorgione. Kick back and enjoy.
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Muro Vino E Cucina
A metropolitan touch to Venice's bar scene, this place has brought some boisterous nightlife joy to the market squares of Rialto. Spread over two storeys looking over the markets, the downstairs level is a bustling designer bar while upstairs, you can eat reasonably well. Folks spread out into the square with their tipples.
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Musica A Palazzo
Climb the stairs to this noble mansion (Palazzo Barbarigo-Minotto) on the Grand Canal and take up a seat in the salon--and later the master bedroom for operatic duos and delicious excerpts of light classical music. On some evenings there's La Traviata , moving from one room to another. Rarely can one experience opera in so intimate a fashion, let alone in a grand Venetian mansion laden with stucco and original frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo.
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Orange
Huge sheet-glass windows dominate the southern end of the campo . The colour of an Aperol spritz inside, the bar appeals to fashionistas and other narcissists. In summer, skip the lurid bar and head out back to the pleasant garden or the ringside terrace upstairs.
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Osteria agli Ormesini
Oodles of wine and 120 types of bottled beer in one knockabout little place? Perhaps you should get along to this osteria . It's something of a student haunt, and tipplers spill out onto the fondamenta to enjoy their grog.
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Osteria Alla Bifora
Carved out of an exquisite 12th-century building, this is an enticing option for a few glasses of red over an enormous tagliere (platter) of cold meats and cheese. Franco, the owner, painstakingly unveiled the centuries-old timber ceiling of what had long been a butcher's. At the back is the bifora , a Gothic window (now walled in) that is unusual for being at ground level. Franco's rules: no coffee and no pictures on the brick walls.
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Osteria Da Codroma
Popular with students, Codroma has been a favoured meeting place of workers, artists, musicians and just about everyone else in this part of town for more than 100 years. It's a knockabout spot, where people crowd in at timber benches and tables for an ombra and snacks.
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Pachuka
The most reliable of the Lido's summertime dance spots, this place right on the beach works year-round as a snack bar and pizzeria, but summer weekend nights it cranks up as a bit of a beachside dance club, too. A shuttle bus operates from midnight to every 20 minutes between the club and the Lido vaporetto stop.
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Paradiso Perduto
Paradise Lost remains a classic place to hang out for a beer or simple wines at the long benches with a little live music to boot. The food is so-so but the Sunday night blues and jazz jam sessions ( to ) will put rhythm in your shoes. There's usually live music on Friday, too.
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Piccolo Mondo
This teensy disco and bar is a bit of a throwback but perfectly all right in its own fashion. It pulls a strangely mixed crowd of foreigners and locals in search of that late night frisson. Many Venetians would deny ever setting foot in the place, but wander by late at night and you'll find a handful. Otherwise, it's anything from loud young North American students to late-night loungers on the pull. Drinks cost around €10 .
