When to Visit Venice (Hint: Not Summer): A Local's Honest Advice

The Venice Mosè Viero lives in is not the August Venice, shoulder-to-shoulder along the Rialto, the air thick with heat, the queues snaking around the Doge's Palace. The Venice he knows is calmer, quieter, and considerably more beautiful, the city in winter or early spring, when the fog drifts off the canals and the only sounds on a side street are footsteps and water. We asked him when, and how, to actually experience it.

Mosè lives in Venice and advises travellers through The Voyage Co.

Beyond St. Mark's: the Venice You're Missing

Mosè doesn't start with the most famous square. He starts with everything around it, and with the Veneto cities most travellers never realise are an easy day trip away.

Q. What's the part of Venice most travellers never see?

Everything apart from St. Mark's Square. Venice is a remarkably beautiful city in almost every direction, and yet most travellers spend the majority of their time in a concentrated area around the main square, moving between the same handful of landmarks, unable to see past the crowds to understand what the city actually is.

Q. So how should I explore the rest of it?

Walk. Pick a direction away from the centre, cross a bridge, follow a canal until you find yourself in a calle you do not recognise. Cannaregio in the north has long fondamenta and the Jewish Ghetto. Dorsoduro in the south has a more residential feel and excellent museums. Both reward an unscripted hour or two.

Q. And the day trips?

The Veneto cities. Vicenza for its Palladian architecture, Treviso for a relaxed and genuinely beautiful historic centre, Padova for its extraordinary Giotto frescoes and university energy. Any one of them makes for an excellent day trip from Venice, and all three have a fraction of the visitor numbers Venice attracts.

Are Gondola Rides Worth It?

Mosè is direct about Venice's most iconic tourist experience, and offers the alternative travellers usually don't know about.

Q. Are gondola rides actually worth the money?

For most people, honestly, no. They are short, the gondolieri have a well-established reputation for not being particularly attentive to the customer experience, and the price is steep for what amounts to a thirty-minute drift along a canal you can see just as well from a bridge. My point is not that you should never do it, go in with accurate expectations.

Q. What's a better way to spend time on the water?

Take the traghetto across the Grand Canal. It's a stripped-down, working gondola that ferries Venetians across at a handful of points along the canal, costs a couple of euros, takes a few minutes, and feels far more like a real moment in the city than the tourist version. And use the vaporetto routes properly. Vaporetto Line 1 down the Grand Canal at sunset, sitting outside, is one of the best half-hours you can have in Venice.

How to Spend 48 Hours in Venice Properly

Mosè's two-day plan starts very early at the most famous building in the city, then leaves the centre by lunchtime, and treats the second day as a chance to step outside Venice itself.

Q. Where should the first morning start?

St. Mark's Basilica. It's legitimately one of the most extraordinary buildings in Europe, and the only way to experience it properly is before the crowds arrive. Find a tour that offers exclusive early morning access before the official opening time. Standing inside with the gold mosaic ceiling almost to yourself, the whole thing hits very differently from how it does at 11am with thousands of other visitors pressing in around you.

Q. And the rest of the first day?

Leave the centre. Spend the rest of the morning in Cannaregio or Dorsoduro. Eat lunch at a bacaro rather than a sit-down restaurant, a glass of spritz and a plate of cicchetti standing at the bar is the Venetian way to eat in the middle of the day, and it is considerably cheaper and more interesting than most tourist-facing restaurants.

Q. And the second day?

Either the islands, Murano for glass, Burano for its famous painted houses, Torcello for its extraordinary early Christian church that predates Venice itself, or a day trip to one of the Veneto cities. Both options open up a much wider understanding of what this part of Italy actually is.

When to Come, and the Mistake Travellers Make

Winter is his answer, and the reasoning is about light, fog, and a city that finally feels like itself again. He's also passionate about one specific mistake that ruins meals for travellers across Italy.

Q. When's the best time to visit Venice?

Winter, without much hesitation. The tourist volume drops dramatically, the light on the water is extraordinary in a way that is very different from summer, and there is something genuinely atmospheric about the fog and the quiet that makes the city feel like it belongs to you in a way that summer Venice simply never does. Photographers come in winter for this reason.

Q. What about the cold and Acqua Alta?

The cold is real. Acqua Alta, the seasonal flooding, is a genuine consideration in November and December. Bring waterproof boots and a good coat, and you will be fine. If winter feels like too much, early spring is my second recommendation, the crowds have not yet arrived, the light is good, and the city is extremely pleasant to walk in.

Q. And the mistake you see every visitor make?

Treating Italy as one big thing. It's not, it's a collection of very distinct regional cuisines and cultures that happen to share a border. Every traveller should hear this rule: do not order pizza in Venice, and do not order cannoli. Neither has anything to do with Venetian cooking. They belong to other parts of Italy, they will not be done well here, and ordering them in a Venetian restaurant is a reliable way to have a mediocre meal when you could have had an excellent one.

What to Eat in Venice

Mosè's food list is short and unmistakably Venetian, one dish you can only really eat well in this region, and one habit that will save you money and improve your trip.

Q. What's the one Venetian dish travellers shouldn't miss?

Seppie nere con polenta, black cuttlefish cooked in its own ink, served over soft polenta. It is very specific to Venice and the Veneto, dark in colour and extraordinary in flavour, and it is one of those dishes that is almost impossible to find done well outside this region. If you have never tried it and it looks alarming, try it anyway. The combination of the ink sauce and the creamy polenta is one of the things that makes eating in Venice feel like eating somewhere genuinely unlike anywhere else.

Q. And the habit that will improve every meal?

Go to a bacaro instead of a sit-down restaurant. A bacaro is a traditional Venetian wine bar, order a Spritz and a plate of cicchetti (small snacks like baccalà mantecato on bread, or a slice of grilled polenta with cheese), and eat standing at the bar. That's how Venetians eat in the evening, it's much cheaper, and the food is usually considerably better than what you'll get at a tourist-facing trattoria.

Venice rewards travellers who come at the right time and walk in the right direction. Pick winter or early spring, get inside St. Mark's before the queue, then turn your back on the square and find a bacaro. That's the Venice that actually belongs to the people who live here.

Explore more Venice-specific insights to plan your next trip with locals.