Venezia
Venezia, capoluogo del Veneto, è una città costruita sull'acqua che non somiglia a nessun'altra: centoventi isolette collegate da...
Actualizado el 11 julio 2026 · Fuentes: Redazione editoriale interna Trovido — conoscenza generale e verificata sulla storia e i luoghi di Venezia, nessun servizio AI esterno utilizzato
Esta temporada · Julio · Verano
Qué hacer en Venezia ahora
El relato
La historia de Venezia
St Mark's Square and the Basilica
St Mark's Square is Venice's drawing room, the only "piazza" in the city (the others are called "campi"). Enclosed on three sides by the arcades of the Procuratie and open towards St Mark's Basin, it houses the Campanile, the Clock Tower and St Mark's Basilica, a masterpiece of Byzantine art in the West. Inside, more than eight thousand square metres of golden mosaics cover the domes and vaults, while the Pala d'Oro, an altarpiece studded with precious stones and enamels, preserves the legacy of centuries of ducal patronage. On the façade, the four gilded bronze horses, once brought from Constantinople, are today replicas (the originals are in the museum inside). The square, often flooded by acqua alta in autumn and winter, remains the ideal starting point for exploring the sestieri.
The Doge's Palace and the Bridges
Next to the Basilica stands the Doge's Palace, seat of political power of the Republic of Venice for centuries: residence of the doges, law court and prison all in one, with the sumptuous Chamber of the Great Council dominated by Tintoretto's "Paradise", among the largest paintings in the world. From the palace one reaches the famous Bridge of Sighs, which links the judicial offices to the New Prisons: the name, a nineteenth-century romantic invention, evokes the sighs of the condemned who crossed it before sentencing. Venice has more than four hundred bridges, almost all pedestrian: from the majestic Rialto Bridge to the small stone bridges spanning minor canals, each tells a piece of the city's story, often lacking parapets in past centuries, when Venetians walked across them with a naturalness quite different from today's cautious tourists.
The Grand Canal and Rialto
The Grand Canal is the great waterway that crosses Venice in the shape of an inverted S, for about four kilometres, lined with more than two hundred palaces ranging from Venetian Gothic to Baroque, passing through lagoon Renaissance. Travelling along it by vaporetto (line 1, slower and more scenic) or crossing it standing on a traghetto gondola as Venetians once did is one of the best ways to understand the city. The Rialto Bridge, the oldest of those crossing the canal, was completed in stone in 1591 after centuries of wooden bridges that collapsed or burned; it still houses shops along its two arcades today. At the foot of the bridge lies the Rialto Market, the city's historic commercial centre since the Middle Ages, with fish, fruit and vegetable stalls.
The sestieri and hidden Venice
Venice is divided into six sestieri, each with its own character: San Marco, the touristic and institutional heart; Cannaregio, the most residential and lived-in, home to the Jewish Ghetto, the oldest in Europe; Castello, wide and quiet to the east, with the Arsenale; Dorsoduro, artistic and university-filled, facing the Zattere; San Polo, the smallest, around Rialto; Santa Croce, between the railway station and Piazzale Roma. Moving away from the main routes reveals quiet squares with stone wellheads, minor churches rich in art, and artisan workshops that resist mass tourism. Getting lost in the calli without a fixed destination remains the most authentic way to know Venice: the yellow signage towards San Marco, Rialto or Piazzale Roma still helps find the way back when needed.
Museums and art (Accademia, Guggenheim)
Venice is among the world's capitals of art. The Gallerie dell'Accademia, overlooking the Grand Canal, hold the most important collection of Venetian painting from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, with works by Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto. Not far away, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, set in the American patron's unfinished palace on the Grand Canal, displays twentieth-century masterpieces: cubism, futurism, abstractionism and American abstract expressionism. Ca' d'Oro, flamboyant Gothic on the Grand Canal, houses the Franchetti Gallery. At Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi are the Pinault contemporary art collections. Every two years the Venice Biennale transforms the Giardini and the Arsenale into the world's most important contemporary art event, alternating with architecture.
The islands of the lagoon
The Venetian lagoon holds islands with very strong identities. Murano, reachable in a few minutes by vaporetto, has been home to artistic glassmaking since 1291, when the furnaces were moved there for fire-safety reasons: today one can still visit the glassworks and the Glass Museum. Burano, with its brightly painted houses once useful for fishermen to recognise home in the fog, is famous for needle lace, a centuries-old tradition now preserved by the Lace Museum. Torcello, the oldest of the inhabited islands, was the lagoon's first settlement before power shifted towards Rivoalto (Rialto): today it preserves the evocative Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta with Byzantine mosaics and very few inhabitants. The Lido, a long sandy strip between lagoon and open sea, has beaches and the historic Venice Film Festival.
Gondolas, bacari and cicchetti
The gondola, an asymmetrical boat rowed with a single oar to compensate for its curvature, is Venice's symbol par excellence: today mostly touristic, but once a daily means of transport, about four hundred remain in service, all black due to an old sumptuary law. Traghetti, simpler gondolas that cross the Grand Canal where there is no bridge, are still used standing by residents. For the most authentic culinary experience, head to the bacari, small taverns where one drinks an ombra (glass of wine) accompanied by cicchetti: meatballs, creamed salt cod, sardines in saor, liver crostini or baby octopus, served at the counter in Venetian style, the lagoon's equivalent of tapas. Hopping from one bacaro to another, the so-called giro d'ombre, is a social ritual still very much alive among Venetians.
Carnival and the events calendar
Venice's Carnival, among the oldest and most famous in the world, brings thousands of visitors every February to admire the elaborate masks and historic costumes that fill the calli, squares and palaces, with highlight events in St Mark's Square such as the Flight of the Angel. The tradition of masks, once a tool of social anonymity in the Republic, survives in the artisan workshops that still make them by hand in papier-mâché today. Besides Carnival, the city's calendar is punctuated by major events: the art and architecture Biennale, the Venice International Film Festival at the Lido in August-September, the Historical Regatta in September with its procession of period boats on the Grand Canal, and the Feast of the Redeemer in July, with fireworks over St Mark's Basin.
Acqua alta and lagoon life
Venice has always lived with the phenomenon of acqua alta, the periodic rise in sea level that, aided by tides and the sirocco wind, floods the city's lower areas in autumn and winter, starting with St Mark's Square. Since 2020 the MOSE system (Experimental Electromechanical Module), a set of mobile floodgates at the lagoon's three inlets, rises during exceptional tides to protect the historic centre, significantly reducing the worst flooding. Venetians' daily life remains shaped by the rhythm of water: raised wooden walkways are set up along the main routes during the highest tides, while maintaining the foundations and safeguarding the lagoon remain central issues for the city's future.
Getting around
No cars circulate in Venice: the only public transport is the ACTV vaporetti, which connect the islands of the historic centre, the lagoon and the Lido along regular routes, with line 1 running the whole length of the Grand Canal. For quick crossings between the two banks of the canal where there is no bridge, traghetti rowed standing up are used. The city is mostly explored on foot, following the yellow signage for the main directions (San Marco, Rialto, Piazzale Roma, railway station). Land access is via the Ponte della Libertà, leading to Piazzale Roma (car parks) and Santa Lucia railway station; Marco Polo Airport is connected to the historic centre by bus, water taxis and the Alilaguna, public motorboats crossing the lagoon.
Experiences not to miss
- Ammirare l'alba su Piazza San Marco prima dell'arrivo dei gruppi turistici
- Watch the sunrise over St Mark's Square before the tour groups arrive
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