The Italian city's incomparable beauty more than makes up for the swarms of tourists, writes Sandra O'Connell.
VENICE IS sinking, but it's not global warming or natural subsidence that's doing it. It's the sheer weight of visitors. Be warned: all those atmospheric images you've seen in guide books and on the internet have been taken at cock crow, because at every other time of day or night the main sights are swarming with tourists.
We travelled in low season - March - and even then every possible statue, monument and paving stone served as an impromptu assembly hall for students on school tours.
Thankfully, as with the noise of a vacuum cleaner, you soon become not just immune but strangely attached to the din.
And, on the very heavily credited plus side, the crowds and queues are only minor cribs compared with the city's incomparable beauty. There truly is nothing like it. Venice is, after all, one of those places first-time visitors are understandably apprehensive will fail to live up to expectations. In fact, it is even more beautiful than you think.
Just getting there is an adventure. If you're flying into Marco Polo airport, a five-minute walk takes you from arrivals to the landing stage for the Alilaguna public water-bus service. Costing a fifth of the price of the private water taxis, they weave a circuitous route around the lagoon, taking in Murano, Lido and Giudecca, before depositing you on Venice island.
If you're clever, the first thing you'll have checked when booking your hotel is that it is easy to find. It's no mean feat in a town so labyrinthine that even characters in a Donna Leon novel can't make sense of it. Being able to find your destination with ease is all the more important if you're to avoid lugging a heavy suitcase down a dark alley at night.
That said, you'd be hard-pressed to find a safer city in which to do so. A by-product of Venice's transmogrification from living city to public museum is that it is practically crime-free.
High property values and tourist prices have decimated the local population, with only 50,000 Venetians now living on the island, half the number of 50 years ago and a tiny figure compared with the 12 million visitors who arrive annually.
If you're one of them, by far the best way to get a sense of it is to take a water bus down the Grand Canal. Get the Accelerato, which, despite its name, is actually the slowest boat available and zigzags from landing stage to landing stage.
If they had any sense, the tourist authorities would equip each with audio headsets to outline the history of the buildings you float past.
No doubt each has an ochre-hued tale to tell, from the Gothic facade of the Ca' d'Oro - built by a 15th-century fat cat in order to display his wealth - to the luxurious Hotel Gritti Palace, where modern-day fat cats do likewise.
Though geographically to one side, the aesthetic centrepiece of the island is Piazza San Marco. It's also something of a tease, in that, when you arrive at the landing stage, it's easy to mistake the large rectangular space facing you - the Piazetta - for the main event.
This antechamber of a square is dominated by the enormous Palazzo Ducale, or Doge's Palace. It stands to your right, its Gothic facade veiling a medieval structure that is still visible behind it. Inside is a series of surprisingly dark - if magnificently decorated - rooms, including a vast political assembly hall frowned down upon by the portraits of 30 generations of dour doges, representing 1,000 years of the Most Serene Republic. A tour of the palace includes the not-so-serene torture chambers where suspects under interrogation were hung by their wrists from the ceiling. You'll also get to cross the famous Bridge of Sighs to the city jail. Though it sounds positively romantic - and no less than Casanova was interned here - its true meaning only becomes apparent when you realise the slim chance occupants ever had of getting out alive. The walls still hold the graffiti of inmates immemorial.
Beside the Doge's Palace, and crowned with four magnificent golden horses stolen from Byzantium, is the magnificent Basilica di San Marco. Its facade is covered in a mosaic of millions of tiny glittering pieces of glass, a craft for which the area is now famous.
You can be a part of it by climbing out on to a balcony just under the dome, where the view over the square is terrific.
For an even more spectacular view cross over to the Campanile, the medieval bell tower where Galileo perfected his telescope. Originally a lighthouse, in time it too became something of a torture chamber, with miscreants placed in a cage under the bell and left to die.
On its top is a winged, golden lion symbolising St Mark, the city's patron, a title he assumed when Venetian merchants stole his remains from Constantinople in 828, hidden in a barrel of pork to evade Muslim detection. His body is now interred in the basilica, and the story of its retrieval is told pictorially in the mosaics out front.
The campanile itself is 98m high (don't worry, there's a lift) and gives views not just over the entire island but over neighbouring Giudecca too. So high are you that the crowds below are reduced to ants. Still swarming, but so much more manageable.
Go there Venice hot spots Where to stay, eat and go if you are among the canals for a weekend
Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies to Treviso airport, 30km from Venice. From there take the ATVO Eurobus service for about €5 (one way) to Piazzale Roma, the main train terminal on Venice Island.
Much more elegant to arrive by water. Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) flies to Marco Polo airport, six kilometres from the laguna. A 10-minute walk from arrivals brings you to the Alilaguna Blue Line water-bus service. The crossing takes about 45 minutes and costs €12.
5 PLACES TO STAY
Hotel Gritti Palace. Campo Santa Maria del Giglio, 00-39-41-794611, www.hotelgrittivenice.com. The city's best-known five-star hotel is a 16th-century palace. The most elegant, the most atmospheric and pretty much the most expensive of them all.
Hotel Danieli. Riva degli Schiavoni, 00-39-41-5226480, www.venice-hotel-danieli.com. Well located beside the landing stage at San Zaccaria, this luxury hotel has a history of attracting literary and musical types such as Goethe, Wagner and Dickens.
Hotel Londra Palace. Riva degli Schiavoni, 00-39-41-5200533, www.hotelondra.it. A four-star alternative just a few doors down from the Danieli, offering the same terrific views at much lower prices.
Wildner Hotel. Riva degli Schiavoni, 00-39-41-5227463, www.veneziahotels.com. For a two-star option - but still offering five-star Grand Canal views - check out this modest hotel. It was good enough for Henry James.
Hotel Cipriani. Giudecca 10, 00-39-41-5207744, www.hotelcipriani.com. It's not strictly Venice (it's a canal away), but this is one of the world's best-known hotels and now part of the Orient Express Group. What more can we say?
5 PLACES TO EAT
Do Forni. San Marco 468, 00-39-41-5232148, www.doforni.it. One of the city's best-known restaurants, popular among locals and visitors alike. This atmospheric, award-winning spot is situated in the former bakery to the Doge's Palace.
Da Silvio. Calle San Pantalon 3747, Dorsoduro, 00-39-41- 5205833. Situated in a quiet backwater and only rarely found by tourists. Traditional Italian fare served up on a lovely shady garden terrace.
Ristorante Antico Martini. Campo san Fantin, San Marco, 00-39-41-5224121, www.anticomartini.com.
A favourite of Wagner, Byron and Casanova and still going strong. Traditional fare, stylish surrounds and a terrace overlooking La Fenice.
Trattoria Da Fiore. Calle delle Bottegha, San Marco, 00-39-31-5235310, www.dafiore.it. Has a reputation far exceeding what you'd expect of a restaurant with just 11 tables. Prides itself in breathing new life into classic Venetian dishes, with an emphasis on locally sourced seasonal produce.
Trattoria Poste Vecie. Rialto Pescheria, 00-39-41-721822, www.postevecie.it. Situated in the Rialto fish market, so no guessing what's on the menu. Founded in 1500, it is reckoned to be Venice's oldest restaurant. Dishes include traditional favourites such as salted cod, spider crab and cuttlefish, with recipes that date back further still.
5 PLACES TO GO
Gallerie dell'Accademia. Campo della Carita, 00-39-41-5222247, www.gallerieaccademia.org. Holds the world's greatest collection of Venetian paintings, including works by Carpaccio, Bellini and Tintoretto.
Much less visited is the Museo Correr (Napoleonic Wing, Piazza San Marco, 00-39-41-2405211, www.museiciviciveneziani.it). The museum is spread out over three floors and contains everything from antique prints and costumes to armour and ships' instruments. Your Doge's Palace ticket gets you in.
The Vivaldi museum (Piccolo Museo della Pietà Antonio Vivaldi, Santa Maria della Visitazione, San Marco) is a small exhibition space behind La Pietà, the church where Vivaldi used to teach, which holds curiosities connected with the composer.
You can't visit Venice without going to the famous Rialto Market (Campo San Giacomo/Campo della Pescheria, San Polo) in the city's commercial hub. During Carnival the stallholders don medieval costumes and vie with each other for business.
You should make time for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Fondamenta Venier dei Leoni, Dorsoduro 704, with a second entrance at Calle S Cristoforo, Dorsoduro 701, 00-39-41-2405411, www.guggenheim-venice.it). This landmark collection includes works by more than 200 contemporary artists.
COFFEE BREAK
There's a great-value coffee shop on the second floor of the Museo Correr, with terrific views of the square below.
WHAT TO AVOID
Pigeon droppings. Luckily, the local authorities are taking action and eradicating the avian population of St Mark's Square. If you're going for the pigeons, therefore, go before the end of the year.
A GOOD NIGHT OUT
The Venice Carnival Show (00-39-41-2411943, www.venice-carnival-show.com) takes place in the newly restored Teatro San Gallo, 50m from Piazza San Marco. Tickets cost €49 and are available online and from tourist offices. The nightly event includes dinner and a theatrical history of the Venice carnival, with music and multimedia projections.
HOT SPOT
Bacaro Jazz (San Marco 5546, 00-39-41-5285249, www. bacarojazz.com), a restaurant and cocktail bar in front of the central post office at Rialto Bridge. Stays open until 3am.
WHAT TO READ
Anything by Donna Leon. You'll see Commissario Brunetti at every turn.