Venice, the serene and the new

Grandeur and the modern spirit

Venice rewards the early riser. Book the first entry of the day at St Mark’s Basilica on basilicasanmarco.it and you stand beneath its golden mosaics before the piazza fills; the Doge’s Palace next door, booked on the MUVE website, is best taken slowly, room by room. By the afternoon you can be in another century altogether, at the Punta della Dogana, where the Pinault Collection shows contemporary art in the old customs house at the tip of Dorsoduro, or at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection a few minutes along the Grand Canal. Until 22 November 2026, the Biennale Arte fills the pavilions of the Giardini and the halls of the Arsenale.

The grand hotels are writing a new chapter too. The Danieli has reopened as a Four Seasons, and Orient Express Venezia has opened in the 15th-century Palazzo Donà Giovannelli on the Strada Nova in Cannaregio.

St Mark’s Basilica →   Arts & Culture in Venice →   The best hotels in Venice →

Traditions and seasonal style

Venice dresses for the occasion. In the churches, shoulders and knees are covered: a light scarf in your bag solves it in summer. Wear flat shoes with a good grip, because you will cross dozens of bridges a day, and keep to the right on them. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons; summer is hot and busy, and in the colder months the city can be veiled in mist and visited by high tides, when the MOSE barriers rise at the inlets of the lagoon.

The calendar is the city’s wardrobe. Carnival, with its masks and costumes, runs from 23 January to 9 February 2027: Ca’ Macana in Dorsoduro makes its masks by hand. La Fenice opens its season with Giordano’s Fedora (13–22 November 2026), and its New Year’s Concert (29 December–1 January) is the evening to dress up. On set days, day visitors pay the city’s access fee: the 2027 days will be published on cda.veneziaunica.it.

Carnevale di Venezia →   Teatro La Fenice →   Venice essentials →

At the table: the café, the bacaro and the new kitchens

The day starts with coffee under the arcades of Piazza San Marco: Caffè Florian has served it since 1720, in its own words, and the Gran Caffè Quadri across the piazza since 1775. For pastries, there is Rosa Salva, a Venetian pasticceria. Spend an early morning at the Rialto markets, where the fruit, vegetables and fish of the lagoon are sold at the foot of the bridge, then at noon stand at the counter of a bacaro for cicchetti and a glass of wine: Cantine del Vino già Schiavi faces the San Trovaso gondola yard.

The new Venice cooks in palazzi and on quiet fondamente. In the 2026 MICHELIN Guide, Glam, Enrico Bartolini’s restaurant in Palazzo Venart, holds Two Stars; Quadri above the piazza, Local in Castello and Wistèria in San Polo hold One, and so does Venissa on Mazzorbo, beside its own walled vineyard. Dama at Ca’ Bonfadini, Arva at Aman Venice, Lineadombra on the Zattere and El Magazen in Cannaregio are in the selection too. For wine with a view of its source, take the train to Conegliano, at the foot of the Prosecco hills.

The best restaurants in Venice →   Cafés →   Eating in Venice: the back story →

The lagoon, the mountains and the vineyards within reach

Venice’s nature is its lagoon. A day on the waterbus takes you to Torcello, with its cathedral and golden mosaics, to the painted houses of Burano and across the footbridge to the vineyard of Mazzorbo. In the city, the pines of Sant’Elena and the Giardini give you shade beside the water, and the Lido has the long Adriatic beach, best explored by bike.

Beyond the lagoon, the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage site, rise to the north around Cortina d’Ampezzo, and the steep vineyards of the Prosecco hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, also on UNESCO’s list, make a gentler day out.

Burano, Mazzorbo and Torcello in a day →   The Dolomites and Cortina →   The Prosecco hills →

After dark, and what’s new

Venice goes out early and elegantly. Harry’s Bar on Calle Vallaresso has poured drinks since Giuseppe Cipriani opened it in 1931; along the Grand Canal, the Gritti Palace’s Bar Longhi and the St. Regis’s Arts Bar look out over the water at the hour when the domes of the Salute turn pink. At the Danieli, Bar Dandolo is back in the reopened hotel, and on the Giudecca the Skyline Rooftop Bar at the Hilton Molino Stucky looks back across the whole city.

Then walk home through San Marco when the day visitors have gone: it is the most beautiful hour of the day. What is coming next: Rosewood is restoring the Bauer, The Langham is preparing to open on Murano, and a new railway to Marco Polo Airport is under construction.

The best bars in Venice →   New developments in Venice →

Beyond the centre

Some of the most rewarding Venice lies away from the Rialto and San Marco. In Cannaregio, the Ghetto, the Fondamenta della Misericordia and the church of the Madonna dell’Orto show the city at its most residential, with Vini da Gigio for supper. In Castello, Via Garibaldi leads past the Giardini to Sant’Elena, where the city ends in pine trees and the lagoon. Across the water, the Giudecca has Palladio’s church of the Redentore and the long fondamenta that looks back at the Zattere.

Cannaregio →   Castello →   The Giudecca →

The rail frontier: across the lagoon

Few arrivals in Europe match the train across the lagoon to Venezia Santa Lucia, where you step out of the station onto the steps of the Grand Canal. Trenitalia and Italo run high-speed trains to Padua, Verona, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Milan; book on their own websites. From the north, ÖBB runs direct Railjet trains from Vienna and a Nightjet sleeper overnight (oebb.at, nightjet.com).

For the grandest journey of all, Belmond’s Venice Simplon-Orient-Express runs to and from Venice: see belmond.com for its routes and dates.

Venice by rail →   The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express →   Vienna by rail →   ULTIMATE Rail Journeys →

The film that captured Venice

Many films have been shot in Venice, but David Lean’s Summertime (1955) is the one that captures its soul: Katharine Hepburn as a traveller who arrives alone and is changed by the city, filmed in the summer light of Dorsoduro and Burano, with the famous fall into the canal at Campo San Barnaba. For a darker Venice, watch Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now; for glamour, Casino Royale. See our page Venice on Film for the locations and the official trailers, and our guide to the Film Festival on the Lido.

Venice on Film →   The Venice Film Festival →

Questions and answers