Venice the famous historic city of Northern Italy is often known as "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Bridges", and "The City of Light ".The Venetian Republic was a major center of Renaissance art, a strong sea power and a staging area for the Crusades, as well as a very important center of commerce particularly 'the spice trade'.
Venice is world-famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of 122 islands formed by about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands on which the city is built are connected by about 400 bridges, canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot. Except the railways and the Northern edge of the city, transportation within the city remains entirely on water or on foot. Venice is Europe's largest urban carfree area, unique in Europe in remaining a sizable functioning city in the 21st century entirely without motorcars or trucks.
Gondolas are classical boats of Venice, usually shiny black in color, long and narrow in shape. Today Gondolas are a UN world heritage and are used mainly for tourists, funerals and weddings. The most popular mode of travel within Venice is vaporetti (which are motorised water buses). Vaporettis ply on set routes with proper timetables and stoppages along the canals and islands. Instead of buying tickets every time you travel on the vaporetti it is better to purchase a 24 hour / 48 hour ticket or longer depending on the duration of your stay. On the other hand Gondola rides are quite pricey but worth a ride specially for couples.
Venice is not the best place to meet Italians because all you see here are tourists, tourists and more tourists irrespective of the season. Local people are tired of seeing the tourists there.
Italians are masters at the art of cooking and you would find a lot of restaurants in Venice. Wether you want a fine dining experience or just a corner shop selling sandwiches, gelati and drinks you will find everything. As a simple rule of thumb for all tourist places, go to the restaurants where more local people seem to go and not to the ones which seem to be full of tourists only. Venice's airport is named after its most globally renowned citizen Marco Polo. It is a city for tourists who seek sight seeing, architecture, history and art. This isn't the best place for a happening nightlife; there are a few clubs and pubs in Venice but not the coolest ones.
It is easy to get lost in Venice's narrow alleys and winding canals, carrying a guide map would be a good idea.
The whole city is a tourist attraction in itself but the Grand Canal, Rialto bridge, Academia Bridge, St. Mark's square, Bridge of Sighs, Doge's palace, the islands of Murano, Burano and Lido are the major attractions along with its innumerable museums.
Grand Canalis the main canal of Venice running through most of the city. Most waterbus routes pass through the Grand Canal, on warmer summer days the canal may actually start giving a strong odour.
Rialto is the oldest and the fanciest bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice it is made of stone and there are shops all over the bridge. There are small shops selling souvenirs on both sides. Just one block away from Railto's flea market amidst the narrow lanes are shops selling designer clothing and jewelry.
St Mark's Square is undoubtedly the most photographed and famous plaza in Europe, St. Mark's is in the heart of the city, surrounded by chic sidewalk cafes and boutiques.
Doge's palaceis the most impressive secular building in Venice, this palace served as the senate house, administrative center, hall of justice, public archive and prison up until the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797.
St Mark's Basilicablends the architectural styles of East and West, Venice's magnificent basilica was consecrated in 832 AD as an ecclesiastical building to house the remains of St. Mark.
Clock tower is a 14th century clock which stands on the north side of St. Mark's Square, and is known by its large clock face displaying the hours of the day, phases of the moon and movement of the sun through the signs of the Zodiac.
Near the Rialto bridge one can also visit the famous sailor Marco Polo's house.
Venice is also famous for it Opera, theatre, cheese and chocolate.
Two of the other biggest attractions of Venice are the Venice Film Festival and the Venice Carnival. The film festival is just another film festival but the carnival is one of its kind. Venice's history has an important place for masks where people used to go out wearing masks and do things that they would normally not like to be seen doing in public. To celebrate that everyone Venice carnival is held in February where Venetian people often dress up and wear masks some of them wear extremely beautiful and colorful royal dresses and masks with very articulate expressions. Visitors particularly photographers travel from all over the world to photograph the masked people in beautiful costumes. Public performances of artists from all over the world are held in St Marks square during the carnival.
Murano is the island near venice famous for glass making, Murano cut glass is famous worldwide specially for Murano designs that use pure gold in them. On the little island of Murano you would see a christmas tree made of glass and a lot of glass factories as well as glass shops selling Murano glass jewelry, souvenirs, lights and anything from pens, pendants and paperweights to aquariums and life size glass statues,
Buranois another picturesque island with small homes and canals famous for its lace making community who traditionally used to produce handmade lace for costumes.
If you do not mind traveling in cold weather February is the best time to visit Venice due to the Carnival and Venice isn't too crowded then due to the cold weather and you would also get good deals on accommodation then, accommodation during the summer is quite expensive in Venice. Venice in general is quite an expensive place in terms of hotels, food and transport if you use water taxis and gondolas. During the summer when Venice hotels are booked out a lot of tourists choose to stay in Mestrewhich is a suburb of Venice on the mainland and is just a 10 min train ride away. Accommodation in Mestre is considerably cheaper than Venice all year round.
Venice experiences very high humidity, with hot weather in July and August, the height of summer. Temperatures in summer usually range between 86°F to 91°F (30°C - 33°C), dropping in winter to between 32°F and 37°F (0°C - 3°C). Due to its location on the Adriatic coast, Venice often experiences thunderstorms and rain showers which, particularly in spring and autumn, tend to cause flooding. Known as the 'acqua alta, ' it is best to pack waterproof shoes or boots, to avoid a soaking. April to October is usually the busiest time in Venice, though it is a popular destination year round. Christmas, Easter, Carnival (in February) and the Venice International Film Festival (in August) are also busy periods and winter is perhaps the best time to travel to Venice to avoid crowds and find better rates on accommodation.
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