Venice
Venice
Venice is the only city in the world with no cars, no roads, no urban sprawl — just 118 islands connected by 400 bridges, afloat in a shallow salt lagoon at the northern edge of the Adriatic. It was built on water because water was defensible. It survived for over a thousand years as an independent republic — the Serenissima, the Most Serene — and then fell to Napoleon in 1797 without a fight, the Republic dissolved in a single afternoon. It has been slowly sinking ever since, and it remains the most singular city in Europe.
The question Venice raises — and never quite answers — is whether it is a living city or a museum. The population of the historic centre has fallen from 170,000 in the postwar years to under 50,000 today. Tourist arrivals exceed 20 million annually. And yet the bacari fill up with locals at 6 PM, the fish market on the Rialto opens at 7 AM with restaurant chefs selecting the morning’s catch, artists live and work in Cannaregio and across the Giudecca canal, and the Biennale remains the most important contemporary art event in the world. The answer is that both things are true simultaneously. Venice is a museum that is also still, stubbornly, alive.
The City Today
Venice today is a city in negotiation with its own conditions. The MOSE flood barrier system — 78 mobile gates installed across the three lagoon inlets — became operational in 2020 after decades of delay and corruption scandals, and has largely controlled the acqua alta (high water flooding) that had been increasingly inundating the lower parts of the city. Piazza San Marco, which flooded more than 100 times a year in the 2010s, now floods far less. This is significant — not just practically but symbolically. The city is not surrendering.
Day-tripper tourism remains a profound stress. In 2024 Venice began charging a €5 day entry fee for tourists arriving in peak periods — the first city in the world to do so. It has not solved the problem but it has introduced a principle: access to the city is not free. The regulation of cruise ship traffic in and near the historic centre has reduced, though not eliminated, the most egregious intrusions.
The young Venetians who remain — and there are more than the headlines suggest — tend to cluster in Cannaregio, in the eastern reaches of Castello, on the Giudecca, and in Mestre on the mainland. They run the independent galleries, the natural wine bars, the design studios. The city’s relationship to contemporary culture is more active than its reputation as a frozen Renaissance set-piece implies.
The Biennale
The Venice Biennale is the oldest and most prestigious international art exhibition in the world. Founded in 1895, it takes place in odd-numbered years from April to November, alternating the International Art Exhibition and the International Architecture Exhibition (which runs in even-numbered years). The Biennale has shaped the discourse of contemporary art for 130 years and continues to be the moment when the art world converges on a single city.
The Giardini
The historic core of the Biennale. The Giardini della Biennale in Castello contain 29 permanent national pavilions, built and managed by individual countries over more than a century. The result is an architectural anthology — the German pavilion (built under the Nazi regime, a political object in its own right), the Nordic pavilion (Sverre Fehn, 1962, one of the finest Modernist buildings in Venice), the US pavilion (Gerrit Thomas Rietveld-influenced, 1930), the Brazilian pavilion (Lina Bo Bardi and Amerigo Vespucci, 1964). The Central Pavilion (Palazzo delle Esposizioni) anchors the site and houses the curatorial exhibition of the director appointed for each edition.
The Arsenale
The second main Biennale venue, in Castello. The historic Arsenal of Venice — the largest pre-industrial complex in Europe, where the Venetian Republic built its warships — houses the sprawling main exhibition (the Esposizione Internazionale) in the Corderie (the rope factory), the Artiglierie, and the Gaggiandre dry docks. Walking the full length of the Corderie alone takes 30–40 minutes; the total Arsenale exhibition is physically exhausting and genuinely extraordinary.
The Collateral Events
Beyond the Giardini and Arsenale, the Biennale accredits dozens of collateral events — national and institutional exhibitions staged in palazzos, churches, scuole, and temporary spaces across the city. Some are perfunctory; others are the best things in any given edition. They are free to discover and often the least crowded. A list is published on labiennale.org each edition.
The Biennale and Venice’s Independent Scene
The Biennale concentrates enormous attention and resources on Venice in its active years, but it also distorts the independent gallery scene — programming aligns, rents spike, the city fills with art-world visitors who see only the Biennale and leave. In non-Biennale years (like 2026), the independent circuit operates with more freedom and less competition. Galleries programme more experimentally, the Arsenale sits quiet, and the city’s resident artists are more visible. There is an argument that the off-year is the better time to encounter Venice’s actual contemporary culture.
The next International Art Exhibition opens May 2027. The International Architecture Exhibition runs 2026.
Carnival
Il Carnevale di Venezia is one of the oldest and most famous festivals in the world, with documented roots in the 11th century. At its 18th-century height, it lasted six months — from the day after Christmas until Ash Wednesday — and represented one of the most radical social inversions in European history: under the legally required mask (bauta, moretta, or volto), social rank was suspended. A gondolier could speak freely to a senator. A woman could move through the city unaccompanied. The Republic actively maintained this system because it served as a safety valve — a controlled release of the pressures generated by Venice’s rigid social hierarchy.
Napoleon abolished Carnival in 1797 along with the Republic. It was revived in 1979 as a cultural and tourist event and has grown significantly since.
Today’s Carnival (February)
The modern Carnival runs for approximately ten days ending on Shrove Tuesday (Martedì Grasso). It centres on Piazza San Marco — where costumed figures in elaborate historic dress (silk, brocade, tri-cornered hats, full-face masks) gather for photographs and promenading — and on a series of official events including the Flight of the Angel (Volo dell’Angelo), in which a costumed figure is lowered by wire from the Campanile to the Piazza on the first Sunday of Carnival.
The tension in modern Carnival is the same tension that runs through Venice itself: it is simultaneously a genuine popular tradition and a spectacular tourist product. The most extraordinary Carnival experience is not in the Piazza (which fills with spectators photographing elaborate costumes) but in the quieter sestieri — Cannaregio, Dorsoduro, Castello — where the masks appear in the streets, in the bacari, at the dinner table, in contexts that are genuinely social rather than photographic.
The Mask Tradition
The bauta is the most specifically Venetian mask: a white face mask (larva) worn under a black tricorn hat and black hooded cloak (tabarro). Its design allowed the wearer to eat and drink without removing it. The moretta is a small black oval mask held in place by a button gripped between the teeth — making the wearer unable to speak, an explicitly erotic and submissive object worn exclusively by women. The medico della peste (plague doctor) mask — long white beak, goggles — was originally functional (the beak was filled with herbs thought to ward off plague) and has become the most recognisable Carnival image, despite being the least specifically Venetian.
Quality handmade masks (maschere artigianali) are still made by a small number of craftspeople in Venice: Ca’ Macana in Dorsoduro, Tragicomica in San Polo, Il Canovaccio in Castello. The mass-produced masks sold near the tourist circuit are made in China.
Best Carnival Behaviour
- Be in Piazza San Marco at dawn on a Carnival morning — before the crowds arrive — when the masked figures are finding their positions and the light is still low
- Eat and drink in costume. The bacari on Carnival evenings have a specific and wonderful energy
- The masquerade balls (veglioni) held in historic palazzos during Carnival are the closest thing to the 18th-century experience: Ca’ Vendramin Calergi (the casino), Palazzo Pisani Moretta, Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista. Expensive, atmospheric, historic.
The Six Neighborhoods (Sestieri)
Venice is divided into six administrative districts. Each has a distinct character — understanding them is the key to navigating the city intelligently and moving past the tourist corridor.
San Marco — the historic and tourist core. The Basilica, the Doge’s Palace, Caffè Florian, the Procuratie. Worth a concentrated push, then retreat. Restaurants within 50 metres of the Rialto Bridge are, with rare exceptions, tourist traps.
San Polo — the oldest part of the city. The Rialto fish market, the Frari church, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, and the finest bacari in Venice. The morning ritual of Rialto market + All’Arco + Cantina Do Mori (founded 1462) is the Venetian morning at its most specific.
Dorsoduro — the most livable sestiere. Students from Ca’ Foscari university give it a genuine local energy. The Dorsoduro Museum Mile (Accademia, Peggy Guggenheim, Punta della Dogana, Ca’ Rezzonico) runs along the Grand Canal. Campo Santa Margherita is where Venetians actually gather. The Zattere waterfront faces the Giudecca canal.
Cannaregio — the largest and most residential sestiere. The Jewish Ghetto (the world’s first, established 1516) is here, as is Tintoretto’s parish church (Madonna dell’Orto). The fondamenta along the Misericordia and Ormesini canals are where locals drink. Over the past decade, Cannaregio has become the neighbourhood of choice for young artists, independent galleries (Spazio Berlendis, Marina Bastianello), and natural wine bars (Vino Vero).
Castello — stretches east beyond the Biennale gardens. The further east you go from San Marco, the fewer tourists. Via Garibaldi is the only true street (not calle) in Venice. Contains the finest small painting space in Venice (Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Carpaccio) and the best small restaurant (Osteria Alle Testiere, 22 covers — book weeks ahead).
Santa Croce — the least touristic sestiere despite containing Piazzale Roma at its edge. Campo San Giacomo dell’Orio — a 9th-century church in a genuinely lived-in square — is the city at its most human-scaled. Almost no tourist infrastructure.
Art — A City-Wide Collection
Venice’s art is not concentrated in one grand museum. It is distributed across the city — in former convents, confraternity halls, Grand Canal palazzos, tiny parish churches, and one modernist sculpture garden — and understanding its geography requires understanding the sestieri.
The Institutional Anchors
Gallerie dell’Accademia (Dorsoduro) — the largest collection of Venetian painting in existence. Bellini, Giorgione’s La Tempesta, Titian, Veronese’s Feast in the House of Levi, Tintoretto, Carpaccio’s Legend of St Ursula cycle. 24 rooms, chronological, 2.5–3.5 hours minimum.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Dorsoduro) — 20th-century modernism in the palazzo Peggy Guggenheim occupied for the last 30 years of her life. Dalí, Ernst, Pollock, Picasso, Brâncuși, Calder, Giacometti. She is buried in the sculpture garden alongside her Lhasa Apsos.
Punta della Dogana (Dorsoduro) — the former customs house at the tip of Dorsoduro, converted by Tadao Ando for François Pinault’s contemporary art collection. Exhibitions rotate. The location — water on three sides, Salute behind you, the Giudecca canal opening to the left — is extraordinary regardless of what’s showing.
Scuola Grande di San Rocco (San Polo) — Tintoretto’s life work. More than 60 paintings covering every wall and ceiling of three rooms, painted between 1564 and 1587. The Crucifixion in the Sala dell’Albergo (12.25m wide, 200+ figures) is one of the great paintings in the world. Wheeled mirrors are provided to view the ceilings.
Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni (Castello) — a single low-ceilinged room, nine Carpaccio paintings, almost never crowded. The cycle (1502–07) depicts the patron saints of Dalmatia in continuous narrative. One of the most beautiful art experiences in Italy. Reservation required.
Ca’ Rezzonico (Dorsoduro) — 18th-century Venice reconstructed in a Grand Canal palazzo. Tiepolo ceiling frescoes, Canaletto vedute, Longhi genre scenes, a ballroom of deliberate excess.
Museo Correr (San Marco) — the civic history of the Republic, in Napoleon’s former state apartments. Canova sculptures, the Bellini quadreria, the ceremonial hat of the Doge.
The Independent Gallery Scene
Running parallel to the institutional circuit: a network of independent galleries concentrated in Cannaregio and Dorsoduro, operating year-round outside the Biennale pressure.
Venice Galleries View is a consortium of eight galleries — Alberta Pane, Beatrice Burati Anderson, Caterina Tognon, Dorothea van der Koelen, Ikona Gallery, Marignana Arte, Marina Bastianello Gallery, Michela Rizzo — that coordinate programming and publish a joint calendar. Picking up their printed map is the fastest orientation to the independent scene.
Spazio Berlendis (Cannaregio, opened 2021) operates in the former workshop of one of Venice’s oldest nautical carpentry yards. Emerging and experimental programming; the converted industrial space is part of the experience.
Marina Bastianello Gallery (Cannaregio, Venice space opened 2023) shows almost exclusively artists born in the 1980s and 1990s. Their LAMB project space is a genuine incubator for debut exhibitions and artistic research.
Marignana Arte (Dorsoduro) focuses on new and mid-career international artists, located between the Guggenheim and the Dogana. Their secondary programme, Marignana Project, is specifically dedicated to emerging and interdisciplinary work.
Giudecca has become the studio neighbourhood — former industrial buildings provide affordable large-format space. The Fondazione Giorgio Cini (San Giorgio Maggiore) runs one of Europe’s most active international artist residency programmes. Casa dei Tre Oci (Giudecca) is a dedicated photography exhibition space in a remarkable 1913 neo-Gothic studio palazzo.
Food and the Bacaro Tradition
Venetian eating and drinking is organised around the bacaro — a small wine bar serving ombra di vino (100ml glasses of wine at €1–2) and cicchetti (small pieces of bread or polenta topped with baccalà mantecato, sarde in saor, artichoke, bottarga, cured meat). This is the social infrastructure of the city, operating at 11 AM and again at 6 PM.
The key dishes: sarde in saor (fried sardines marinated in sweet-sour onions, raisins, and pine nuts — a dish invented for preservation at sea), baccalà mantecato (creamed salt cod whipped with olive oil, on grilled polenta), fegato alla veneziana (calf’s liver with slow-cooked white onions), risotto al nero di seppia (black squid ink risotto).
The key bacari: Cantina Do Mori (San Polo, founded 1462 — the oldest), All’Arco (San Polo — the best cicchetti), Cantine del Vino già Schiavi (Dorsoduro — the finest bacaro combination of wine and food), Vino Vero (Cannaregio — natural wine pioneer, canal-side at sunset), Estro (Dorsoduro — 700+ natural wines, full kitchen).
Caffè Florian (Piazza San Marco 57) is the oldest coffeehouse in Italy, open since 1720. It is a deliberate splurge — €15–20 for coffee and a pastry — and entirely worth it once, at opening time (9 AM) before the piazza fills. Sit inside.
Wine — The Veneto Region
Venice sits at the centre of one of Italy’s most important wine regions. Within an hour: Amarone, Soave, Prosecco, Bardolino, Lugana.
Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG is the apex — a dry red wine made by the appassimento method, in which harvested grapes are dried for 90–120 days before pressing, concentrating sugars and flavour to extraordinary intensity. The result is 15–17% alcohol, dried cherry, dark chocolate, tobacco, profound structure. The great producers — Giuseppe Quintarelli, Romano Dal Forno, Bertani, Allegrini — make wines of international significance. Available by the glass at Vino Vero and Estro.
Valpolicella Ripasso is the everyday companion — Valpolicella re-fermented over Amarone’s spent skins, gaining body and complexity at a fraction of the price. The most reliable value in the Veneto.
Soave Classico DOCG (from Garganega grapes on volcanic basalt hillsides east of Verona) is one of Italy’s most persistently underrated whites — mineral, almond, white peach, saline, capable of ageing a decade. Pieropan and Gini are the benchmarks.
Prosecco di Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG — the real thing, from the DOCG hills northeast of Venice, is meaningfully different from the industrial DOC Prosecco that fills the spritz glasses of the world. The Cartizze cru (107 hectares) is the finest expression.
The Spritz — Venice’s aperitivo drink — is 3 parts Prosecco, 2 parts Aperol (or, better, Select, a Venetian bitters produced since 1920, slightly more bitter and herbal than Aperol), 1 part soda. €3–5 at a local bar.
Practical Notes
Getting there: Venice Marco Polo Airport serves the city. The Alilaguna water bus from the airport to San Marco or San Zaccaria takes ~75 minutes and is the most atmospheric arrival. Water taxi is faster and expensive but a reasonable splurge with heavy luggage.
Getting around: The vaporetto (water bus) is the public transport system. Line 1 traverses the Grand Canal at every stop — 45 minutes Piazzale Roma to San Marco. Line 2 is express. Lines 4.1/4.2 circle the island and serve Murano. Line 12 serves Fondamente Nove → Murano → Burano → Torcello. Single ticket €9.50 (75-min); 24h €25; 48h €35; 72h €45.
Navigation: Follow yellow signs: Per Rialto, Per San Marco, Per Ferrovia (station), Per Piazzale Roma. Key vocabulary: calle (street), fondamenta (canalside street), rio (canal), campo (square), sotoportego (passage under a building). Getting lost is not a malfunction.
When to go: October–November and February–March are the best months — the light in October is extraordinary, February has Carnival. August is hot and overcrowded. Cruise ship days flood the San Marco/Rialto corridor with day-trippers 10 AM–5 PM; plan accordingly.
Pack light. Vaporettos are crowded. Bridges have steps. There are no escalators or elevators. Wheeled luggage is a serious burden.
Further Reading in This Collection
- Venice — 5 Days in the Lagoon: full day-by-day itinerary including Caffè Florian, all six sestieri, the lagoon islands, bacari, and departure logistics
- Venice — Museums & Galleries by Neighborhood: room-by-room guides to the Accademia, Peggy Guggenheim, Scuola di San Rocco, Carpaccio’s Schiavoni cycle, Ca’ Rezzonico, Ca’ d’Oro, the Torcello mosaics, and every major collection by sestiere
- Venice — Wine, Independent Galleries & Artist Neighborhoods: deep guide to Amarone and the Veneto wine world, natural wine bar pit stops, the independent gallery scene, and the neighborhoods where artists are working today