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Best experiences:

St Mark’s Basilica

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
St Mark’s Basilica

Surely the most exquisite, beguiling and opulent place of worship in Italy, St Mark’s cathedral was built to satisfy the wildest dreams of the Doges and is rich in glittering Byzantine mosaics, Gothic carvings and sumptuous treasures.

Best for ages 18+

Accademia Gallery (Venice)

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Renaissance paintings on the walls in exhibition rooms of the Galleria Accademia in Venice

From Titian to Tiepolo, the Accademia’s world-class collection represents the Golden Age of Venetian painting. A dazzling collection of masterpieces but also a voyage through the history of Venice itself.

Adult price: £15

Best for ages 18+

Doge’s Palace

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Doge’s Palace

A glittering monument to the Golden Age of Venice – ducal, divine and downright decadent. From Casanova’s rooftop escapade to the twisty tale behind Tintoretto’s enormous Paradise paintings, these walls have seen Venetian history at its most decadent and devious.

Adult price: £25

Best for ages 18+

Carnevale (Venice Carnival)

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Carnevale (Venice Carnival)

Dating back almost a thousand years, this two-week estravanganza of dressing up, partying and posing in elaborate masquerade costumes attracts party-goers from around the world. Grab your mask and ticket for the unique ‘masked balls’.

Best for ages 18+

Duration: 2 weeks

When: February

Frequency: annually

World-class art in Venice

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
World-class art in Venice

Venice is best known as a centre of religious art, daubed across small yet stunning Catholic churches and scuole. But there’s also a vibrant contemporary art scene, including the palatial collections of world-class patrons and the world-famous Venice Biennale.

Best for ages 18+

Art in Venice’s Scuole

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Art in Venice’s Scuole

Venice’s 400-odd historic scuole (schools) were established partly as religious institutions, partly as guilds. The six most powerful ‘Scuole Grandi’ commissioned the great artists of the day to beautify their headquarters, where today the artworks are still intact.

Adult price: £-

Best for ages 18+

Boat trip down the Grand Canal

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Boat trip down the Grand Canal

The Grand Canal is Venice’s busy, trafficked high street and an essential part of Venetian everyday life. Its winding two-miles of double waterfront is lined with magnificent palazzi and is crossed by four bridges.

Adult price: £5

Best for ages 8+

Duration: 45 minutes

Venice’s best food & drink

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Spritz Aperol drink with venetian traditional snacks cicchetti on the water chanal background in Venice. Traditioanal italian aperitif. Image with small depth of field

Destination specialist Nicky Swallow’s summary of the typical foods, ingredients and flavours, cooking styles, dining scene and best foodie experiences in Venice

Best for ages 13+

Duration: -

Cicchetti Crawl

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Cicchetti Crawl

Cicchetti are Venetian tapas, traditionally served in a bacaro (wine bar), and often eaten by the Venetians before lunch or dinner. Take a cicchetti tour – guided or independent –  and sample these weird and wonderful dishes.

Adult price: £-

Best for ages 13+

Duration: -

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Peggy Guggenheim Collection

American millionairess collector Peggy Guggenheim’s glittering display of avant-garde art is housed in her own 18th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal.

Adult price: £12

Best for ages 18+

Glass-blowing in Murano

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Glass-blowing in Murano

Watch in fascination as authentic artisans blow, snip, twist and tug at fiery blobs of liquid to transform them into exquisite glassy artworks – as they have done for centuries.

Best for ages 8+

Ponte di Rialto

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Ponte di Rialto

Although there has been a bridge over the Grand Canal at this point since 1173, todays’ iconic stone Rialto Bridge dates from 1588. Crossed by millions annually and with three parallel staircases and concealed shops, it was designed by Antonio da Ponte; views from the top are splendid.

Best for ages 13+

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Saint Mark’s Square

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Saint Mark’s Square

It’s huge, and often crowded, but St. Mark’s square is one of the most emblematic spots in the city and is lined with over-priced cafés that offer live music. But out of season, on a foggy winter’s evening or at dawn, it’s undeniably atmospheric.

Best for ages 13+

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Venice Biennial of Visual Arts

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Venice Biennial of Visual Arts

Weird-and-wonderful artworks and extraordinary architectural projects transform Venice into a surreal, ancient-meets-modern galaxy of contemporary culture for the summer months.

Best for ages 18+

Duration: 8 months

When: April-November

Frequency: bi-annually

Venice’s islands

Venice, Veneto, Italy

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Bucket List Experience
Venice’s islands

Venice is set in a lagoon surrounded by water and 39 islands. Murano and Burano are the best known, but there are others that are worth exploring, especially if you fancy getting away from it all, and each offers a very different atmosphere.

Best for ages 13+

Rialto Market

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Exterior of the square market building

Venetians have shopped and haggled at this food market on the banks of the Grand Canal since 1097 AD. It’s a mosaic of stalls piled with aubergines, tomatoes, vats of artichoke hearts and (under the arched Pescaria) a zillion varieties of wriggling, glistening fish.

Best for ages 13+

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Bridge of Sighs

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Bridge of Sighs

Although you can’t actually walk over it, the Bridge of Sighs (visible from the Ponte di Paglia) is one of Venice’s most famous sights and links the Doge’s Palace to the adjacent prisons and torture chamber. The sighs were emitted by prisoners en route knowing what awaited them.

Best for ages 18+

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Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Of all Venice’s many churches, the huge, Franciscan barn-like Frari (1338-1469) is one of the most art-packed. It boasts the second-highest bell tower in the city and a severe exterior, but once inside, the quality of the art is extraordinary.

Adult price: £2

Best for ages 18+

Orsoni Mosaics

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Orsoni Mosaics

The last existing furnace using fire in the historical centre of Venice, Orsoni has been using the same techniques to produce 24k gold leaf mosaic tiles since 1888. Visitors can watch skilled artisans create the tiny gold and enamel squares in some 3,500 different colours. Pre-booking is essential.

Best for ages 8+

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Pinault Collection

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Pinault Collection

Japanese superstar architect Tadao Ando was brought in to convert Venice’s 17th-century customs house on the tip of Dorsoduro and 18th-century Palazzo Grassi into stunning exhibition spaces to house French billionaire businessman Francois Pinault’s vast contemporary art collection.

Adult price: £12

Best for ages 18+

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Learn to make a Carnevale mask

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Learn to make a Carnevale mask

Although Carnevale falls in February/March, you can learn to make your own Venetian Carnival masks year-round at one of several workshops in the city. Experienced artisans teach the art of papier-maché mask making and decorating in traditional Venetian style. Great for kids and adults alike.

Adult price: £42

Best for ages 8+

Duration: 1 hour

When: Monday-Saturday

Frequency: daily

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Climb the Scala Contarini del Bovolo

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Climb the Scala Contarini del Bovolo

One of Venice’s more curious sights lies near Campo San Manin. Signs lead to a small courtyard and Giovanni Candi’s exuberant spiral staircase (ca. 1500) stuck onto its relatively plain palazzo. Climb to the top of this eccentric confection for delightful views over the city.

Adult price: £5

Best for ages 6+

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Opera at La Fenice

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Opera at La Fenice

Venice’s magnificent opera house was all-but-destroyed by fire in 1774, 1836 and 1996 and is all faux Baroque opulence. The programme of excellent opera productions and symphonic concerts offers a chance to put on your glad rags. You can also take a behind-the-scenes tour.

Adult price: £50

Best for ages 18+

Duration: 3-4 hours

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Venetian Ghetto

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Venetian Ghetto

Venice’s original Jewish ghetto dates from 1516 and is a fascinating, atmospheric neighbourhood. It remained home to the city’s Jewish population until 1797; today you can take a guided tour of the five magnificent synagogues and museum and eat in a neighbourhood Kosher restaurant.

Best for ages 13+

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Correr Museum

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Correr Museum

Dedicated to the history of the Venetian Republic, the Correr museum houses an eclectic collection of documents, maps, coins, ivories, weapons and so on. Artworks include paintings by Veneziano, Tintoretto, Antonello da Messina and Carpaccio whose Two Venetian Noblewomen appears on many a postcard.

Adult price: £17

Best for ages 18+

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Church of Santa Maria della Salute

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Church of Santa Maria della Salute

Magnificently located at the entrance to the Grand Canal, this vast pale – and unique – church was built in honour of St. Mary of Health in thanks for deliverance from the plague of 1630-31. The best artworks are in the Sacristy, most notably Tintoretto’s Marriage at Cana.

Adult price: £3

Best for ages 18+

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Festival of the Redeemer

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Festival of the Redeemer

The Redentore church on the Giudecca is showcased each third weekend of July when a pontoon bridge is built across the Giudecca canal. On the Saturday night, boats of all description filled with partying Venetians crowd the lagoon to watch a fabulous fireworks display.

Best for ages 13+

Duration: One weekend

When: 3rd weekend July

Frequency: annually

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Naval History Museum

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Naval History Museum

This museum recalls the fact that along with Amalfi, Pisa and Genoa, Venice was once a glorious Maritime Republic. Exhibits include ships through the ages, naval instruments and uniforms, model ships (including the Doge’s barge), and a wonderful display of Gondolas, one belonging to Peggy Guggenheim.

Adult price: £1

Best for ages 13+

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Palazzo Grimani

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Palazzo Grimani

The little-visited Palazzo Grimani is one of the city’s great Renaissance palazzos, now a museum housing an extraordinary collection of classical sculptures, stuccoes, elaborate frescoes and paintings by Hieronymus Bosch.

Adult price: £5

Best for ages 18+

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Church of Madonna dell’Orto

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Church of Madonna dell’Orto

Way off-piste in northern Cannaregio, Madonna ‘of the Garden’ (1399-1473) is stuffed with paintings by the great Venetian master who is also buried here along with his son and daughter. A highlight is his beautiful painting of St. Agnes in the Contarini Chapel.

Adult price: £2

Best for ages 18+

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Coffee at Café Florian

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Coffee at Café Florian

Dating from 1720, world-famous Florian’s is a jewel-box of a café, all mirrors, stuccoes and frescoes. Join the locals perched at the bar rather than pay way over the odds for a table seat where a simple espresso is likely to set you back €10.

Best for ages 18+

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Locanda Cipriani

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Locanda Cipriani

For a special lunch on a beautiful garden terrace, hop over to Torcello and this iconic restaurant; Ernest Hemmingway and Princess Diana were fans. People come for the peaceful, bucolic setting as much as the food – pasta with scampi and seabass with artichokes, maybe.

Adult price: £30

Best for ages 18+

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Drogheria Mascari

Venice, Veneto, Italy

Drogheria Mascari

A perfect place for foodie gifts, this deliciously retro grocery shop sells a fabulous range of exotic spices, dried fruits and mushrooms plus wines, olive oil and vinegars from all over Italy. The range of coffees and teas is also excellent.

Best for ages 13+

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