I have a theory about Venice. I think the people who say they found it too crowded or too touristy simply did not give it enough time. They saw the headline and missed the story. Venice is not a city you consume from a list — it is a city you surrender to. Turn off the map. Walk until you are pleasantly lost. Let the narrow alleyways take you somewhere you had no intention of going. That is where Venice actually lives.
My first visit to Venice arrived at the end of a train journey from Milan. That approach — watching the landscape gradually give way to water, crossing the long causeway as the city materialises from the lagoon — is one of the great travel arrivals. I recommend it unreservedly over flying into Marco Polo and arriving by water taxi, which is beautiful but somehow misses the drama of the train crossing. The train is the way in.
I have been back twice since that first visit and each time Venice has given me something different. In summer it is golden and heaving and gloriously chaotic. In quieter months it is quieter, more intimate, easier to feel the extraordinary atmosphere of the place without fighting through a crowd to feel it. Both versions have their appeal. Both versions are worth experiencing.
Getting there —
always take the train
The train from Milan to Venice Santa Lucia takes approximately two and a half hours, is comfortable, affordable and arrives you directly in the heart of the city — at Santa Lucia station, which sits right on the Grand Canal. Step off the train and Venice is immediately, dramatically in front of you. There is no taxi rank, no airport bus, no transition. You arrive and it begins.
Trenitalia and Italo both run the Milan-Venice route. Book in advance for the best prices — the high-speed Frecciarossa trains are particularly good and the saving on early booking can be significant. Buy online at trenitalia.com or italotreno.it rather than at the station.
Venice has no cars, no taxis and no flat surfaces. The entire city is built around bridges, steps and narrow alleyways. Your luggage will be carried by you — up and over bridges, through crowds, along cobblestones. On my first visit I made the mistake of packing too much. It was an education. On every subsequent visit I have packed light and the difference to my experience is significant. A porter can carry your bags from the train station to your accommodation — absolutely use this service, it is worth every euro — but from that point onwards, you and your bag are partners. Pack accordingly. One well-organised carry-on is the goal. Think of it as an opportunity to edit your wardrobe down to what you actually love.
Where to stay —
the Airbnb decision
I have stayed in Airbnbs in Venice on my visits and would recommend this approach over a hotel for one specific reason: you get to feel like you actually live there. A Venetian apartment, even briefly, changes the experience of the city. You shop at the local market. You make coffee in the morning. You walk out of your door into the narrow alleyways rather than into a hotel lobby. It is a different way to know a place.
For location: stay close to but not directly in the San Marco area. You want the magic without the maximum noise and maximum price. The Dorsoduro and San Polo neighbourhoods both offer excellent atmosphere, good transport links within the city and — crucially — some relief from the densest tourist traffic. Cannaregio is also worth considering, particularly if you want a more local, residential feel.
The experiences
worth every moment
Venice has a long list of things you could do. Here are the ones that actually moved me — that I would go back for without hesitation and that I recommend to every woman who asks me about the city.
The most important thing to do in Venice costs nothing and requires no planning. Turn off the navigation and walk. The narrow calli — the alleyways that wind between buildings just wide enough for two people — lead you to moments that no guidebook lists. A canal reflected in a window. A tiny bridge over a hidden waterway. A coffee shop the size of a broom cupboard with the best espresso you have ever had. This is the Venice that will stay with you. Follow your instincts, not your phone.
Napoleon called it the drawing room of Europe, and he was right. Piazza San Marco is extraordinary — the scale of it, the architecture surrounding it, the way the light shifts across it through the day. I go not to rush through it but to sit in it. Find a spot on the steps, order nothing, and watch the world pass through one of the most remarkable public spaces on earth. The cafe orchestras at Florian and Quadri are famous — expensive but worth experiencing at least once. The morning light hits the square from the east. Arrive before 9am and you may have it almost to yourself.
The Rialto Bridge is one of the great photographic subjects in the world — and it looks exactly as beautiful in real life as it does in every photograph you have ever seen of it. Go early for the photograph without the crowds. Then stay for the Rialto Market directly beside it — one of the oldest markets in Venice, alive with fresh produce, seafood and local vendors from early morning. The contrast between the grandeur of the bridge and the completely ordinary business of people buying tomatoes is one of the things I love most about this city.
Every rational person will tell you a gondola is a tourist trap. Every rational person is wrong about this. Yes it is expensive for 30 minutes. Yes the gondoliers know exactly what they are doing with the romance of it. And yes — sitting in a gondola on the canals of Venice, watching the palaces drift past from water level, hearing nothing but the dip of the oar and the distant sound of the city — is completely, unreservedly magical. Do it once. Do it in the evening if you can. It is a real-life painting and you are inside it. No regrets. Ever.
If you do one museum or landmark in Venice, make it the Doge's Palace. The exterior — pink and white Gothic stone right on the waterfront — is magnificent. The interior is extraordinary: Veronese, Titian and Tintoretto covering the walls in one of the great art collections in Europe. The Bridge of Sighs — which connected the palace courts to the prison cells — is best viewed from the bridge outside rather than from within. Book a timed entry ticket in advance. The queues without one are significant and avoidable.
A 10-minute vaporetto ride from Venice brings you to Murano — the island where Venetian glassblowing has been practiced for seven centuries. Watch master glassblowers at work in the furnaces, browse the extraordinary glass shops and enjoy the relative quiet of an island that gets a fraction of Venice's tourist traffic. Buy something small and fragile as a souvenir — a reminder that sometimes beautiful things require care in the carrying.
Eating and drinking —
the Venetian way
Venice has a different food culture from the rest of Italy and once you understand it, eating well becomes much easier and considerably cheaper than the tourist menus suggest. The key word is cicchetti — Venetian small plates, the city's answer to tapas, served in bacari (wine bars) throughout the city. Order an ombra (small glass of wine) and a plate of cicchetti and you have the most authentic meal Venice offers.
Creamy baccalà mantecato on bread, hard-boiled egg with anchovy, fried seafood, crostini with inventive toppings — cicchetti at a bacaro is how Venetians eat. Cantina Do Mori near the Rialto is the oldest bar in Venice. Al Merca, right beside the Rialto Market, is legendary among locals. Osteria All'Arco is another classic. Graze through three or four bars in an evening and you have experienced Venice at its most genuine.
Venice is Italy, which means coffee is an art form and a way of life. The tiny coffee bars tucked into the alleyways — discovered while getting pleasantly lost — are among my favourite things about the city. Stand at the bar as Italians do, order a caffè or a cappuccino (never after 11am if you want to blend in), pay the standing price rather than the table price and enjoy one of the small daily rituals that make Italian cities feel like home when you are there.
The restaurants directly on the tourist trail — immediately around San Marco or the Rialto — are typically overpriced and underdelivering. Walk two or three streets back. Look for menus written by hand rather than printed in four languages. Look for restaurants where Italian is being spoken at other tables. The neighbourhoods of Cannaregio, San Polo and Dorsoduro all have excellent options away from the main flow. Seafood is the native cuisine — fresh from the Adriatic, prepared simply, extraordinary.
Venice has excellent gelato and it is one of the great pleasures of wandering the city — a cone in hand, completely without agenda. Look for gelaterie where the gelato is stored in covered metal containers rather than piled high in colourful mounds. The covered storage is how you identify authentic artisan gelato. Pistacchio is the benchmark flavour by which I judge every gelateria. If the pistacchio is good, everything else will be.
"Venice taught me how to pack. When every step involves a bridge and every bridge involves stairs, your bag either earns its keep or it does not come."
— Anjie, Style & Soul 35+What to pack —
the Venice edit
Venice is a city that punishes the over-packer. I learned this the hard way on my first visit and have packed progressively lighter on every return trip. The ideal Venice luggage is a single carry-on bag that you can carry comfortably over a bridge without breaking pace. Here is the edit that has worked for me.
Comfortable flat shoes — cobblestones, bridges and hours of walking. Heels are not impossible but they are inadvisable. Your feet will thank you.
One versatile blazer — the piece that takes you from morning wandering to an evening restaurant without changing your outfit.
A cross-body bag or anti-theft bag — both hands free at all times. Crowded areas require awareness and a secure bag.
Layers not bulk — Venice is humid in summer and cool in the evenings. Layers adapt. A single heavy item does not.
A light packable tote — for the Rialto Market, for shopping, for carrying your gelato home. Takes up no space in your bag.
SPF and sunglasses — Venice reflects water and light in every direction. The glare off the canals is relentless and beautiful in equal measure.
A light rain layer — Venice can change weather quickly, especially in shoulder season. A packable waterproof takes up almost no room.
Camera or phone with a good lens — Venice is a permanent photoshoot. Every corner, every canal, every shaft of light through an alleyway. You will photograph more here than almost anywhere.
The honest tips —
from someone who has been three times
Go early or go late. The light in Venice at dawn is extraordinary. The crowds at midday in summer are not. The city at 7am belongs to you — the pigeons, the market vendors and the sound of water. At night it belongs to you again. Peak hours between 10am and 5pm are when Venice earns its reputation for being crowded. Adjust your day around the light, not the schedule.
The vaporetto is your friend. The water buses run frequently, cost far less than a water taxi and travel the Grand Canal — one of the most beautiful journeys in the world at €9.50 for a single or around €25 for a 24-hour pass. Sit at the back of the boat for the best views on the Grand Canal route.
Get lost on purpose. The mental model most tourists use — landmark to landmark, ticking off a list — is exactly wrong for Venice. Venice is best discovered without agenda. The winding calli are the whole point. The unexpected courtyard, the canal you did not know was there, the coffee shop you found because you were completely turned around — these are the memories you will keep.
Avoid the restaurants on the main tourist drag. The menus in English with photographs are for visitors who do not know better. Walk two streets in any direction and find where Italians are actually eating. It will be better, cheaper and far more memorable.
Take the traghetto across the Grand Canal. A gondola ferry that crosses the Grand Canal at various points for around €2. A two-minute gondola experience that costs a fraction of the full ride and gives you a standing view of the canal. The locals use it. You should too.
Venice is one of those rare places that lives up to every expectation you arrive with — and then exceeds them in ways you did not know to expect. I have been three times. I will go again. There is always something more to find.
If you love the slower, more refined side of travel, Dubai is the modern counterpart — a completely different aesthetic, same attention to how a place makes you feel.