Venice By Night

Venice By Night - By all accounts magnificent

As amazing as Venice is during the day (and it IS amazing!), it is even more amazing between the hours of 7pm and 7am.  Generally speaking, a lot of the Cruise Ship guests get back on their boats, either to head off or to have dinner in their restaurants.  This means the evening and the early morning is generally given to those staying on the Islands or locals.  

In the evening, the weather cools down and the lights go up, making an almost different, completely mystical city.

The waters grow stiller as the gondoliers retire for the day and the lights shimmer on the canals and the lagoon.  St Mark's Square really puts on a show for its guests, and the classical music playing has a different feel to it.

The locals take advantage of the empty streets with laughing and drinking and eating creating a vibrant atmosphere all its own.  Pizza and pasta are cooked and the smells are everywhere, tempting you to sit in the piazza of your choice and enjoy a spritz (an Italian style aperitif - click here for more), then enjoy dinner and a walk amongst the tight alleyways.  Truly magical.

If you are lucky (or unlucky dependant upon your point of view) to have to catch an early bus or train out of the city, at 7am the streets are deserted.  You can take your time and wander around and, while not much is open, the ghost-town atmosphere is eerily beautiful.


So, Venice is Amazing.  That much is a given.  Any tips I'd give for future travellers?

• While there is a lot to see and experience, there's not a lot of 'attractions' per se.  Just enjoy being in the city, getting lost and seeing all the side streets.  You can take a different route each time and discover something you hadn't seen the time before.
• Make sure you take some form of water transport while there.  We took the water bus along the grand canal and, while crowded, was a thoroughly enjoyable way to see the city from a different angle.  You can take a gondola if you so see fit, but there are more cost-effective ways of spending time on the water, plus the gondolas don't necessarily take you from A to B.
• Stay on the island if you possibly can.  Yes, it's more expensive but you also need to take into account the transport in and out of the island each day, plus you might miss out on Venice in the evening if you choose to stay on the mainland.
• What you see in the windows of stores may not necessarily be what you end up getting, especially for food.  Sandwich vendors tend to make up a small selection of very good looking rolls etc for the windows, but store the rest out the back for sale, the ol' McDonalds bait-and-switch.

So now time for Firenze.  Will put a post up tomorrow, but in the mean time, thank you Venice for an absolutely amazing few days.  We will be back.