Top 10 Things to Do in Venice

A gondola gliding through the smaller canals at dusk, serenaded by a gondolier in striped shirt, is the quintessential Venetian experience — utterly romantic and irreplaceable.

The oldest of Venice's four Grand Canal bridges is surrounded by a lively morning fish and produce market that has fed the city since the Middle Ages.

A short vaporetto ride from Venice, the island of Murano has been the world capital of fine glassblowing since 1291, and watching a maestro at work remains spellbinding.

The seat of Venetian power for nearly a thousand years, the Palazzo Ducale connects to the Bridge of Sighs, which prisoners crossed on their way to the cells beyond.

Venice's cathedral is a Byzantine gem encrusted with golden mosaics that tell the story of Christianity from Genesis to Revelation across its vaulted interior.

The finest collection of Venetian painting in the world, tracing the arc from Byzantine altarpieces to Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese in magnificent chronological sequence.

Ride Line 1 from Piazzale Roma to San Marco for the greatest free journey in Europe, passing palaces, churches, and centuries of architectural glory from the waterline.

The lace-making island of Burano, with its candy-coloured fishermen's houses reflected in still canals, is one of the most photogenic places in all of Italy.

Peggy Guggenheim's modernist palazzo on the Grand Canal houses her legendary collection of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, with a terrace that looks directly onto the water.