Venice

The monumental heart of Venice is St Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco), a vast and beautiful space that Napoleon called 'the drawing room of Europe', ringed by elegant arcades and historic cafés (the centuries-old Florian and Quadri, with their orchestras). It is dominated by St Mark's Basilica, the cathedral of gold — a Byzantine masterpiece of five domes whose interior glows with over 8,000 square metres of golden mosaics, with the jewelled Pala d'Oro altarpiece and the bronze horses above the entrance; climb the great brick Campanile for a panorama over the rooftops and lagoon. Beside the basilica stands the Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale), the pink-and-white Gothic seat of the rulers of the Venetian Republic, a sumptuous warren of grand council chambers hung with Tintoretto and Veronese, linked across a canal by the enclosed Bridge of Sighs to the old prisons. The square opens to the waterfront and the lagoon, with the columns of St Mark and St Theodore framing the view to the island church of San Giorgio Maggiore — the classic Venetian vista, magical at dawn before the crowds arrive.

The Grand Canal is Venice's main street — a great reverse-S of water nearly four kilometres long, lined with more than a hundred palazzi whose Gothic and Renaissance façades rise straight from the water, best seen by gliding along it on a number 1 vaporetto (water-bus) or by gondola. Spanning it at its midpoint is the iconic Rialto Bridge, a single marble arch lined with shops, beside the bustling Rialto Market of fish and produce, the commercial heart of Venice for centuries. But the city's deepest magic is found on foot, getting deliberately lost in the maze of narrow lanes (calli), arched bridges, hidden squares (campi) and dead-end canals that make up the six sestieri — for here, away from the crowded main routes between St Mark's and Rialto, you find the quiet, atmospheric, lived-in Venice of workshops, local bars, peeling palazzi and silent canals. Wandering without a map, letting the city reveal itself, is the quintessential Venetian experience; you can never be truly lost, as the lagoon city is small, and every wrong turn rewards.

Venice's six districts (sestieri) each have their own character beyond the central San Marco. Dorsoduro, across the Grand Canal, is the artistic quarter — home to the Gallerie dell'Accademia (the supreme collection of Venetian painting), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection of modern art in her canal-side palazzo, the great domed Salute church guarding the canal mouth, and the lively student area around Campo Santa Margherita. Cannaregio, in the north, holds the world's first Jewish Ghetto (which gave the word to the world) and some of the most authentic local life, alongside the Madonna dell'Orto church with its Tintorettos. San Polo and Santa Croce gather the Rialto market, the immense Frari church with Titian's masterpieces, and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco's cycle of Tintoretto paintings. Castello, the largest and quietest sestiere, holds the Arsenale (the old shipyard) and the gardens that host the Venice Biennale, the world's most prestigious art and architecture exhibition. Venice is one of the world's greatest repositories of art, much of it still in the churches and scuole for which it was painted — a city-sized gallery to discover.

Beyond the main island, the Venetian Lagoon holds a string of islands well worth a half-day by vaporetto. Murano has been the centre of Venetian glassmaking for 700 years — watch the glassblowers at work and browse the workshops and museum. Burano, further out, is a delight of tiny fishermen's houses painted in vivid blocks of colour reflected in its canals, famous too for its handmade lace. Quiet Torcello, the lagoon's first settlement, holds an ancient cathedral with glittering mosaics. Back in the city, Venetian food is a pleasure: the great ritual is cicchetti — small plates of seafood, cheese and crostini eaten standing at a bacaro (wine bar) with an ombra (small glass) of wine or a spritz (born in the region) — alongside seafood risotto, sarde in saòr and fresh fish from the lagoon. Venice is fragile and famously overwhelmed by day-trippers, so visit considerately: stay overnight to enjoy the magical, near-empty evenings and early mornings, come in the shoulder seasons, explore the quieter sestieri and islands, and respect the city that millions love. Done thoughtfully, Venice is unforgettable.