Most visitors to Venice know that Murano, Burano and Torcello exist. They appear on every tourist map, they feature in every guidebook, and the boats that serve them depart throughout the day from the Fondamente Nove and from San Zaccaria. But there is a significant difference between knowing these islands exist and actually understanding what […]

There is a particular quality to the light in Venice in the hour before sunset. It has been painted by Canaletto, Turner and Monet. It has been described by Henry James, Jan Morris and John Ruskin. Photographers travel from across the world to capture it. And yet all of these attempts — however skilled, however […]

It is one of the most common questions in travel planning, and in Venice it is particularly pointed: do I book a private guided tour, or do I explore on my own?

Venice is in a paradox. It is one of the most visited cities on earth — welcoming somewhere between 25 and 30 million visitors a year into a historic centre with a resident population of fewer than 50,000 people — and it is also one of the most fragile. The same qualities that make it […]