Where to Stay in Venice, Veneto

What is Venice known for?

The city occupies a lagoon, and the Grand Canal forms its main thoroughfare, a broad waterway lined with palaces that boats and water-buses work as the principal route through the centre. Piazza San Marco gathers crowds before its arcades and bell tower. The composer Antonio Vivaldi was born in the city, and the world's first international film festival was founded here in 1932.

Gondolas still ply the narrow side canals.

What are the main landmarks in Venice?

Stone and water frame every view. St Mark's Basilica crowns the main square with Byzantine domes and gold mosaics, while the Doge's Palace beside it once housed the Republic's government and links to its old prison by the Bridge of Sighs. The Rialto Bridge arches over the Grand Canal at the old market.

Across the basin, San Giorgio Maggiore raises a white Palladian front above the lagoon. Paintings fill the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, and the Museo Correr and Palazzo Grassi hold further collections near the water.

What is the history of Venice?

Venice grew on a cluster of lagoon islands. For centuries it governed itself as an independent republic, and the shape the city took in that age has altered remarkably little, so that its lanes and canals look much as they did some 600 years ago. Decline followed its heyday.

The Republic's power eventually faded, yet the fabric of palaces, churches and bridges survived intact across the water. Boats replaced carriages, and the canals became the streets. Over 126 islands, some 472 bridges still link one bank of the centre to the next.

Beyond its stones, the city produced musicians and writers whose names still carry. The composers Tomaso Albinoni and Antonio Vivaldi were born here, as were the poets and opera librettists Apostolo Zeno and Carlo Goldoni, who wrote for the stage. Music still fills its churches.

The world's first international film festival was founded here in 1932, drawing the world's cinema to the lagoon. Venice and its lagoon together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the weight of visitors on so fragile a place has become its sharpest modern strain.

Where is Venice?

Water defines the map of Venice. The city sits in a shallow lagoon off the coast of northeastern Italy, spread across 126 islands that open water and a web of canals divide from one another. Some 472 bridges join those islands on foot.

The Grand Canal curves through the middle in a broad reversed-S, the main artery for boats. Veneto spreads inland beyond the lagoon, with the mainland edge close to the west.

What is the climate of Venice?

The lagoon tempers the seasons. Venice has a temperate climate, with warm and humid summers over the lagoon and cool, damp winters when mist often settles low across the water and the canals. Rain comes mostly in autumn and spring.

The surrounding water keeps the temperature steadier than the open plains of Veneto inland. Snow is rare on the islands.

How do you get to Venice?

No cars reach the old city. Trains and buses arrive at the western edge of the islands, beside the lagoon, and from there every onward journey runs on foot or by water along the Grand Canal. Vaporetti, the public water buses, run the main canals and the lagoon.

Smaller boats serve the outer islands of the lagoon. From the terminals, most hotels lie within reach of a single boat line.