Best Things to Do in Venice

Venice is best experienced by alternating famous interiors in the early morning with long, unscripted walks through the outer neighborhoods in the afternoon. Here are the ten experiences that anchor a trip.

1. St Mark's Basilica and its upstairs Museum Loggia. Stand under more than 8,000 square metres of glittering 12th- and 13th-century golden mosaics, then climb to the upper gallery to see the original bronze Horses of St Mark and step out onto the terrace over the square.
2. The Doge's Palace and Bridge of Sighs. Walk the gilded council chambers painted by Tintoretto and Veronese where the Venetian Republic was governed, then cross the enclosed stone Bridge of Sighs into the former prisons.
3. Riding Vaporetto Line 1 down the Grand Canal at dusk. Board at Piazzale Roma or Ferrovia as the sun drops and watch 150 marble Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque palaces glide past all the way to San Marco.
4. Early morning at the Rialto Fish and Produce Markets. Cross the 16th-century stone Rialto Bridge before 08:30 to see lagoon fishermen unloading soft-shell crabs, cuttlefish and razor clams beside piles of purple Sant'Erasmo artichokes.
5. An evening cicchetti crawl in Cannaregio or San Polo. Move between two or three canalside bacari wine bars along the Fondamenta della Misericordia or behind Rialto, ordering small bites of baccalà mantecato and a Select spritz.
6. Tintoretto at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and the Frari. Stand beneath 56 dramatic canvases painted by Jacopo Tintoretto across two floors of the confraternity hall, then step next door into the Basilica dei Frari for Titian's blazing Assumption.
7. Crossing the Grand Canal on a standing traghetto gondola. Pay a couple of euros in coins to ride a stripped-down two-oar ferry gondola across the Grand Canal at Santa Sofia (between Rialto Market and Ca' d'Oro) or San Tomà.
8. Dorsoduro: Accademia Gallery and Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Pair Venetian Old Masters (Bellini, Giorgione and Carpaccio) at the Gallerie dell'Accademia with 20th-century surrealism and cubism in Peggy Guggenheim's canalside garden palace.
9. Island-hopping to Murano, Burano and Torcello. Take ACTV Line 12 across the northern lagoon to watch glassblowers on Murano, walk the brightly painted fishermen's lanes of Burano and visit the 7th-century cathedral mosaics on quiet Torcello.
10. Bell tower view from San Giorgio Maggiore. Take the one-stop waterbus from San Zaccaria across the basin to Palladio's white island church and ride the lift up its bell tower for the finest uncrowded view back at the Doge's Palace and St Mark's Campanile.