Venice Italy- A Romantic Adventure Like No Other

Venezia, La Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, city of canals and palaces...or tawdry sewer alive with crowds and charlatans? Venice's nature is dual: water and land, long history and doubtful future, airy delicacy and dim melancholy. If this precious place does sink, the world will be the poorer.

For a thousand years the city was one of the most enduring mercantile sea powers on the face of the earth.

Today the brilliance and influence of Venice Italy have long since faded.

What is left behind is a shadow of what was, leaving a town of tarnished glories, so out of time and out of place.

Venice is so achingly beautiful it's hard not to look for the back of the set. Find out how to get around the city of Venice .

When to Go
It's almost always high season in Venice, although the city is busiest in spring (Easter-June) and Sept-Oct. Accommodation can be hard to find then, as well as around Christmas, New Year and Carnevale (February). Like Italy's other great tourist hubs, Venice is at its worst in high summer (June-August): it's crowded, oppressively hot and sticky.

The most pleasant time of year to visit Venice is late March into May, with clear spring days and comparatively fewer crowds.
This way you can experience the city in relative comfort.

September is the next best in terms of weather, but October is quieter.

Flooding occurs in November and December, and winter can be unpleasantly cold - although seeing Venice under snow can be the stuff of fairy tales.

Climate in the City of Venice
Summer is probably the worst time of year to be in Venice - average daytime temperatures hover around 27°C (81°F) but can go considerably higher. High humidity also makes for rather sticky weather, and the combination of heat haze with air pollution makes it highly unlikely you'll be able to espy the Alps from any point in the city. Prevailing winds (the sirocco) are from the south and hot.

Tourism Events & Transport
Venice is built on 117 small islands and has some 150 canals and 409 bridges. Only three of the bridges cross the Grand Canal whilst a fourth, designed by Calatrava, has been interminably delayed.

It is difficult to predict when or if it will finally be put in place, even the concept has become something of a Venetian tragi-comedy. The historic centre is divided into six sestieri (quarters): San Marco, Dorsoduro, San Polo, Santa Croce, Cannaregio and Castello.

It covers a deceptively small area - if you don't get lost (which you will!), walking from Cannaregio in the northwest to Dorsoduro in the south should take only 30 minutes. The city's 'main street' is the Grand Canal, which passes most of the districts as it twists along the length of Venice from the railway station to San Marco.

Few cities reward walkers so generously as Venice: get ready to pound those antique pavements! Don't bother following the interminable signs directing you to 'San Marco', 'the Rialto', 'the Ferrovia' or all three at once - get lost in the timeless backstreets, dead-end alleys, canalside fondamente and deserted squares that make up the real Venice.

Vaporetto is the other essential method of getting around, and it can be equally rewarding: you won't find too many public transport routes as unforgettable as vaporetto No 1's trip along the Grand Canal.

Taking a ride in a gondola is corny, expensive, embarrassing and...well, if you really want to, why not? Water taxis are almost as expensive as gondolas, but their pilots don't wear stripy shirts and sing 'O Sole Mio'.

You can find out more about the city of Venice at the Europe for Visitors web site and Guide. For travel agents try Virginholidays.