Hotels in Venice

Venice is exactly as improbable as promised — a city on water where the buses are boats and every wrong turn ends at a canal — and no amount of crowding quite ruins it. The move is to stay overnight: day-trippers funnel between San Marco and Rialto, and by 8pm the lanes of Cannaregio and Castello empty into something close to silence.

Skip the gondola if the price offends you; the number 1 vaporetto down the Grand Canal costs a fraction and shows you more. It is expensive, it floods occasionally in winter, and August is sweaty and dense. Stay in Cannaregio for local bacari wine bars and calmer evenings, Dorsoduro for galleries and students, or San Marco only if you've accepted the premium for the postcard address.