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Venice

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against all but essential travel to Venice due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Imagine the audacity of building a city of marble palaces on a lagoon – and that was only the start.

Epic Grandeur

Never was a thoroughfare so aptly named as the Grand Canal, reflecting the glories of centuries of Venetian architecture in the 50 palazzi and six churches lining its banks. At the end of Venice’s signature S-shaped waterway, the Palazzo Ducale and Basilica di San Marco add double exclamation points. But wait until you see what’s hiding in the narrow backstreets: neighbourhood churches lined with Veroneses and priceless marbles, convents graced with ethereal Bellinis, Tiepolo’s glimpses of heaven on homeless-shelter ceilings, and a single Titian painting that mysteriously lights up an entire basilica.

Venetian Feasts

Garden islands and lagoon aquaculture yield speciality produce and seafood you won’t find elsewhere – all highlighted in inventive Venetian cuisine, with tantalising traces of ancient spice routes. The city knows how to put on a royal spread, as France’s King Henry III once found out when faced with 1200 dishes and 200 bonbons. Today such feasts are available in miniature at happy hour, when bars mount lavish spreads of cicheti (Venetian tapas). Save room and time for a proper sit-down Venetian meal, with lagoon seafood to match views at canalside bistros and toasts with Veneto’s signature bubbly, prosecco.

An Artful Lifestyle

Pity the day trippers dropped off at San Marco with a mere three hours to take in Venice. That’s about enough time for one long gasp at the show-stopper that is Piazza San Marco, but not nearly enough time to see what else Venice is hiding. Stay longer in this fairy-tale city and you’ll discover the pleasures of la bea vita (the beautiful life) that only locals know: the wake-up call of the gondoliers' ‘Ooooeeeee!’, a morning spritz in a sunny campo (square), lunch in a crowded bacaro (bar) with friends and fuschia-pink sunsets that have sent centuries of artists mad.

Defying Convention

Eyeglasses, platform shoes and uncorseted dresses were all outlandish Venetian fashions that critics sniffed would never be worn by respectable Europeans. Venetians are used to setting trends, whether it be with controversial artwork in the Punta della Dogana, racy operas at La Fenice or radical new tech start-ups challenging Silicon Valley giants. On a smaller scale, this unconventional creative streak finds vibrant expression in the showrooms of local artisans where you can find custom-made red-carpet shoes, purses fashioned from silk-screened velvet, and glass jewels brighter than semiprecious stones. In a world of cookie-cutter culture, Venice’s originality still stands out.

Must see in
Venice

  • Basilica di San Marco

    Early risers urge you to arrive when morning sunlight bathes millions of tesserae (mosaic tiles) with an other-worldly glow, and jaws drop to semiprecious-stone floors. Sunset romantics lobby you to linger in Piazza San Marco until fading sunlight shatters portal mosaics into golden shards, and the Caffè Florian house band strikes up the tango. Yet no matter how you look at it, the basilica is a marvel. Two eyes may seem insufficient to absorb 800 years of architecture and 8500 sq metres of mosaics – Basilica di San Marco will stretch your sense of wonder.

  • Palazzo Ducale

    Other cities have government buildings; Venice has the Palazzo Ducale, a monumental propaganda campaign. To reach the halls of power, you must pass the Scala dei Censori (Stairs of the Censors) and Sansovino's staircase lined with 24-carat gold, then wait in a Palladio-designed hall facing Tiepolo's Venice Receiving Gifts of the Sea from Neptune. Veronese's Juno Bestowing her Gifts on Venice graces the trial chambers of the Consiglio dei Dieci (Council of Ten), Venice’s CIA. Upstairs is the Piombi attic-prison, where Casanova was confined in 1756 until his escape.

  • Gallerie dell’Accademia

    They’ve been censored and stolen, raised eyebrows and inspired generosity: all the fuss over Venetian paintings becomes clear at the Accademia. The Inquisition did not appreciate Venetian versions of biblical stories – especially Veronese’s Last Supper, a wild dinner party of drunkards, dwarves, dogs, Turks and Germans alongside apostles. But Napoleon quite enjoyed Venetian paintings, warehousing them here as booty. Wars and floods took their toll, but international donations have restored Sala dell'Albergo’s crowning glory: Titian’s Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, where a young Madonna inspires Venetian merchants to help the needy.

  • Tintoretto's Heaven on Earth

    During Venice's darkest days of the Black Death, flashes of genius appeared. Tintoretto's loaded paintbrush streaks across 50 dramatic ceiling scenes inside the Scuola Grande di San Rocco like a lightning bolt, revealing glimmers of hope in the long shadow of the plague that reduced Venice's population by a third. Downstairs scenes from the story of the Virgin Mary adorn the vast assembly hall, starting with the Annunciation and culminating in a brooding Assumption where angels lift Mary heavenwards amid a turbulent, stormy sky.

  • Opera at Teatro La Fenice

    Before the curtain rises, the drama has already begun at La Fenice. Wraps shed in lower-tier boxes reveal jewels, while in top loggie (balconies), loggione (opera critics) predict which singers will be in good voice, and which understudies may merit promotions. Meanwhile, architecture aficionados debate whether the theatre’s faithful reconstruction after its 1996 arson attack was worth €90 million. But when the overture begins, all voices hush. No one wants to miss a note of performances that could match premieres here by Stravinsky, Rossini, Prokofiev and Britten.

  • La Biennale di Venezia

    When Venice dared the world to show off its modern masterpieces, delegations from Australia to Venezuela accepted the challenge – who turns down an invitation to Venice? Today La Biennale di Venezia is the world's most-prestigious creative showcase, featuring art (in odd-numbered years) and architecture (in even-numbered years), and hosting the Venice Film Festival and performing-arts extravaganzas annually. Friendly competition among nationals is obvious in the Giardini's pavilions, which showcase architectural sensibilities ranging from magical thinking (Austro-Hungary) to repurposed industrial cool (Korea).

  • Punta della Dogana

    Warehouses make the coolest art spaces – especially when they’re over 300 years old. When French magnate François Pinault's collection of contemporary art grew too big for his Palazzo Grassi, he commissioned minimalist architect Tadao Andō to repurpose a 17th-century wedge-shaped customs house into a cutting-edge showcase, fit for major statements by controversial art stars such as Damien Hirst and Maurizio Cattelan. Three years and €20 million later, Andō completed his modernist makeover, effortlessly combining old and new in spacious gallery spaces filled with plenty of pieces to fascinate and offend.

  • Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta

    Nowhere is Venice’s wild and woolly past more evident than on the island of Torcello, once Ernest Hemingway’s favourite bolthole and the former capital of the Byzantine city. The island is still charmingly overgrown and harbours at its centre the mesmerising medieval basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, covered in golden mosaics. Climb the attached bell tower and you’ll be rewarded by stunning views over the swampy landscape, a rare snapshot of what Venice must have looked like to those early escapees from the mainland.

Explore Venice

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