Expotel

Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!The first half of this well known saying is certainly true of Venice (the latter not so much, provided you know where the watering holes are).

Venice is a watery city indeed. As if there wasn't enough of the stuff lapping around the canals, mamma mia!-the skinny paved streets were awash in monsoon-strength showers when we visited.

Cars are famously prohibited, so the only way to get around is on foot or, of course, via Venice's multiple waterways. Think you can get from A to B, smugly pulling your wheely case on the flat? Think again, Venice has over 400 pedestrian bridges helpfully graduated with steps... Take my advice, if you're in a group, it is well worth splashing out (sorry...) on a private water taxi pick-up from the airport direct to your hotel.

Get lost (armed with a map)

If you need to get from A to B for a specific time or meeting, don't risk ambling about aimlessly as so many of the tour guides advise. Take a map, or you could be scurrying around Venice's rabbit warren alleys for aeons. Once you've got your overall bearings, looking up at the street signs can be a useful guide, indicating chief points of interest, as they do: e.g. "to Rialto", "to San Marco" - invaluable in the small hours when reading a map is a no go after one too many Bellinis...

Venice may be quite small, but being disjointed, it can take time to get around. Luckily, water taxis vaporetto (public transport boats) are plentiful, and hotel shuttle boats, regular. You need to be organised, as after lunch the famous Italian siesta grinds many shops and services to a sleepy halt.

After the haphazard meanderings along Venice's labyrinth of alleyways and plethora of bridges, there's something liberating about crossing the elegant expanse of Venice's most majestic square, the Piazza San Marco -famously depicted by Venice-born painter, Canaletto. Here, sheltered from the sun (or rain) beneath the long colonnades circumnavigating the square, you will find historic cafes, chi chi art dealers and jewellery boutiques, not to mention a zillion pigeons diving into and onto tourists.

The range of activities on offer across Venice's six major town divisions or 'sestieri'* are manifold: You can tour the city centre or, at Carnival-time (if you are lucky enough to be here then), watch a fanfare of festivities unfold on the Grand Canal. Why not take an afternoon stroll through the colourful fishing island of Burano, Venetian glass-festooned boutiques of Murano, or old-style charmof Torcello. You can also have fun on the beach on the island of Lido. But if time is short, just walk around (pack good sandals, Venice was not built for delicate slingbacks. Better still, snaffle up a divine Italian leather pair as you won't get finer craftmanship than Venetian leather shoes and bags). And finally, collapse in a serenaded gondola with a glass of Prosseco in hand. Viva Venezia!

around venice

Enjoy a day at the beach...

...on the island of Lido, between the sea and the lagoon - A great location for incentive groups. Teams can play golf, tennis, go on tandem bike (two-man) cycling tours, horse-riding, football, and even receive flying instruction at the historic san Nicolo airport

Butano island

A small and charming fishing island in the lagoon (accessible by vaporetto boat), festooned with colourful houses and lace-making ateliers. Famous Venetian masks and silk scarves are also cheaper to buy here than from Venice's more touristic centre.

Murano island

find out how and where Venetian glass is made. The Consortium of Murano Glass, a Venetian museum and atelier, makes a fun and creative day out.

for culture vultures

St. Mark's Square

Piazza San Marco

Sit in a historic cafe on this hugely famous piazza watch the world go by. Strolling through the piazza at dusk, listening to the live classical orchestras playing at the old cafes is very special indeed.

Saint Mark's Basilica

Basilica di San Marco

Arguably Venice's most famous monument,consisting of a vast and beautiful Byzantine church, museum and treasury housing Mediterranean treasures, even St. Mark's remains - which, according to legend, were smuggled past Muslim guards in a vat of pickled pork from Egypt in 828.

Campanile de San Marco

Bell Tower

For a birds eye view of Venice, climb San Marco's Piazza's imposing tower (or take the lift), but be prepared to queue unless you visit late in the day.

Doge's Palace

Palazzo Ducale

Tour the historical home of Venetian judiciaries, the prisons, torture chambers and armoury. Casanova famously escaped from this prison.

Grand Canale

Groups of up to six people can take a serenaded gondola ride up and down the small alleyways, but several gondolas can travel 'in tandem' which is fun.

Bridge of Sighs

Be photographed with the only covered over bridge in Venice in the background.

Rialto Bridge

This famous bridge is flanked by souvenir shops selling Venetian glass gifts and fine jewelry. The waterside cafes and restaurants are the ideal vantage points from which to watch boats and gondolas busying up and down the Grand Canal.

Palazzo Grassi

This monumental marble mansion of the Grassi family on the Grand Canal, is now a world renowned art and history museum that houses a 600-seat garden theatre.

St. Mary of the Friars

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Hailed as one of the most important churches in Venice.

Accademia Bridge

This area on the Grand Canal is home to the Peggy Guggenheim collection and Accademia galleries, where you will find Venetian paintings from Italian renaissance masters Titian, Tintoretto, Bellini and Giambono.

La Fenice Opera House

Catch a concert or ballet in Venice's most famous theatre, which has burned down and been resurrected to its original glory twice!

restaurants

Ristorante 'da Ivo'

Calle dei Fuseri, San Marco - A hidden gem in a tiny street off St Marco Square, serving tradional Tuscan and Venetian dishes. Not cheap but enchanting and worth a blowout.

Trattoria da Remigio

Castello - This typical Italian restaurant's speciality is home-made gnocci and seafood.

Ristorante Al Mercanti

Off Calle dei Fuseri, San Marco - fine dining and contemporary decor with outside courtyard seating in clement weather.

Q Coffe

The restaurant of the Museo Querini Stampali and its enchanting gardens - great for lunch or dinner.

Ristorante Pizzeria

Algiubagio, Cannaregio - A good looking waterside restaurant with extensive wines on display.

Trattoria Do Forni

Calle Specchieri, San Marco - A famous, historical restaurant serving traditional Venetian dishes in a novelty Orient Express-style decor.

Centrale Lounge Bar Restaurant

San Marco - A trendy new restaurant that's popular with celebrities from Juliette Binoche to Christina Aguilera.

Trattoria Busa alla Torre

Campo Santo Stefano, Murano - This highly rated waterside lunch-stop is ideally located near Murano's campanile on the main drag of glass boutiques.

Trattoria da Romano

Via Galuppi, Burano - A characterful old favourite haunt of artists and musicians from Maria Callas to Matisse.

Ai Tre Spiedi, Salizzada San Cazian, Cannaregio

A great value unpretenious trattoria serving top grub, off the beaten tourist track.

Tea houses, cafes, bars

Caffe Florian

Piazza San Marco - Venice's oldest, theatrically ornate tea house (1720). Expect to pay through the nose, especially when the classical band is playing outside (supplement to pay), but worth it. When Casanova escaped from the Doge's Palace prisons across the square, he allegedly couldn't resist stopping here for a coffee before fleeing Venice!

Caffe Lavena

Piazza San Marci - This old world cafe (1790) is surprisingly affordable and more laid back than other cafes on the piazza, and serves great ice cream. Plays live classical music here at teatime.

Antico Caffe Rosa Salva

Campo S.Giovanni e Paolo, Castello - A buzzing cafe serving lip-smacking hot chocolate and confectionary.

Bar/Gelateria Nico in Zattere

Dorsoduro - south of the Gallerie dell'Accademia (Zattere is virtually across the water from the Hilton Molino Stucky). Great ice cream!

Harry's Bar

Venice's most famous bar, opened by acclaimed restauranteur Giuseppe Cipriana on the Grand Canal at San Marco. Celebrities from Hemingway to Woody Allen have graced this tiny bar with no view to speak of and a dining room upstairs (Harry's Bar is said to have invented carpaccio, but is most famous for inventing the Bellini - a mix of fizzy prosecco and peach juice (Extortionately priced here at over €20 a glass with service charge - We warned you!).

what to eat and drink

"cichetti"

Tapas-style bar food, including baccala montecato (dried fish whipped into a fluffy mousse), cuttlefish sauteed in its own ink, calf's liver with onions, or octopus salad.

Bigoli in salsa

Hard wheat spaghetti with anchovy sauce.

Fegato alla venexiana

Veal liver coooked in a sweet onion sauce.

Sarde in saor

Sardines in sweet and sour sauce

Risi e bisi

Pea risotto.

Order a "spritz"

Venice's signature cocktail of Prosecco and bitters, or for the sweeter toothed, try a Bellini cocktail (peach puree and Prosecco).

getting about

The most economical way of travelling around on a budget is with a three-day Venice Card or ACTV travel pass, granting unlimited travel on public waterbuses (vaporetti) along the Grand Canal. Ask your hotel for assistance.

If you're on a budget (not getting a private watertaxi or overland taxi from the airport), you can take the snail-slow but reliable Alilaguna ferry that runs hourly from the Venice Marco Polo airport docks to key stops including San Marco, Lido and Zattere (nearest stop to Hilton Molino Stucky) - allow 1.5-2 hours (€12 single fare). Low cost carrier easyjet, flyBMI and BA fly regularly to Venice from London and Manchester airports.

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