2 days in Venice itineraryLa Serenissima: Venice Through the Eyes of the Republic

7 stops · 09:00 to 20:00 · about 1.3 km between stops, in a straight line

Highlights: Piazza San Marco, St Mark's Basilica, Doge's Palace & Bridge of Sighs and San Zaccaria.

1. 1

   09:00about 45 min

   Arrival & Check-In

   Drop your bags at your hotel and let the city's particular silence — no engines, just water and footsteps — recalibrate your senses before the day begins.

2. 2

   10:00about 40 minSight

   Piazza San Marco

   Start where the Republic began its day: the great ceremonial square that for centuries was the stage for processions, executions, and triumphs alike. Take your time with the geometry of it — the Procuratie, the campanile, the basilica facade all in conversation across the stone.

   

   About 150 m to the next stop

3. 3

   10:45about 75 minSight

   St Mark's Basilica

   Step inside the Basilica di San Marco and let your eyes adjust to the golden half-dark. Every vault and apse is covered in Byzantine mosaics accumulated over centuries of Venetian conquest and trade — an entire theology told in tesserae. The Pala d'Oro altarpiece alone is worth the separate ticket.

   

   About 300 m to the next stop

4. 4

   12:15about 60 minLunch

   Lunch at Al Vecio Canton

   A short walk from the Basilica, on the corner at the end of Ruga Giuffa in Castello, this pizzeria-trattoria is best known for its pizza, with pasta and seafood dishes on the menu too. Sit down here for lunch before the long afternoon in the Doge's Palace.

   About 300 m to the next stop

5. 5

   13:30about 120 minSight

   Doge's Palace & Bridge of Sighs

   The seat of Venetian power for nearly a thousand years, the Palazzo Ducale is a Gothic-Renaissance palace wrapped around a courtyard of extraordinary scale. Walk the gilded council chambers, then cross the enclosed white limestone Bridge of Sighs — named, legend has it, for the last glimpse of the outside world prisoners would see before entering the cells beyond.

   

   About 250 m to the next stop

6. 6

   16:00about 40 minSight

   San Zaccaria

   A five-minute walk from the Piazza, this undervisited church contains one of Giovanni Bellini's most serene altarpieces — the Madonna and Child with Saints — in a kind of luminous quiet entirely at odds with the crowds outside.

   

   About 350 m to the next stop

7. 7

   20:00about 90 minDinner

   Dinner at Enoteca Mascareta

   Cap the first day at Enoteca Mascareta, a wine bar on Calle Lunga Santa Maria Formosa that also serves food, with its bottles lined up on the shelves. It's the kind of place where a second bottle arrives before you've quite decided you need it.

   More about Enoteca Mascareta

9 stops · 08:30 to 19:30 · about 6.7 km between stops, in a straight line

Highlights: Rialto Market & Bridge, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Ca' Rezzonico and Grand Canal by Vaporetto.

1. 1

   08:30about 60 minSight

   Rialto Market & Bridge

   The market that has provisioned Venice since the Middle Ages is at its magnificent best before 10am — fishmongers in white coats, vivid piles of seasonal vegetables, and gondoliers cutting under the bridge. The Rialto Bridge itself is the finest viewpoint over the Grand Canal's tightest bend.

   

   About 200 m to the next stop

2. 2

   09:40about 30 minFood

   Morning Cicchetti at Dai Zemei

   Steps from the market, Dai Zemei is a pocket-sized bar built for exactly this moment: a cicchetto or two, a small ombra of white wine, and the market crowd pressing around you. The perfect Venetian breakfast for anyone who finds cornetti insufficient.

   About 500 m to the next stop

3. 3

   10:20about 75 minSight

   Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

   The great Gothic brick church of the Franciscans holds more masterpieces per square metre than almost anywhere in the city — Titian's blazing Assumption above the high altar, his Pesaro Madonna in the left aisle, and Canova's pyramid-shaped cenotaph near the entrance. Take the full hour: the building rewards it.

   

   About 350 m to the next stop

4. 4

   11:45about 75 minSight

   Ca' Rezzonico

   A short walk along the fondamenta brings you to this baroque palazzo on the Grand Canal, now the city's museum of eighteenth-century Venice. The frescoed ballroom, the lacquered furniture, and the views from the upper windows over the canal give a vivid picture of the Republic in its last opulent decades.

   

   About 650 m to the next stop

5. 5

   13:10about 60 minLunch

   Lunch at La Calcina

   Head to La Calcina on the Zattere waterfront, where Ruskin once lodged and the restaurant terrace sits on the water facing the Giudecca Canal. A proper sit-down lunch with the sun on the water — one of the city's more civilised midday experiences.

   About 1.5 km to the next stop

6. 6

   14:20about 90 minSight

   Grand Canal by Vaporetto

   From the Zattere stop, take Line 2 toward Tronchetto and Piazzale Roma, then change to Line 1, which runs the full length of the Grand Canal past Ferrovia, Rialto and Accademia to San Marco. The Line 1 leg alone takes about 45 minutes, so allow an hour and a half with the change. Stand at the prow if you can. The procession of Gothic, Renaissance, and baroque facades — Ca' d'Oro, Ca' Pesaro, Ca' Foscari — is reason enough to make the trip.

   

   About 1.3 km to the next stop

7. 7

   16:00about 35 minSight

   St Mark's Campanile

   Disembark at San Marco for a late-afternoon ascent of the Campanile. The lift takes you up to the belfry, 60 metres above the piazza, and the view — the entire lagoon, the islands, the terracotta roofscape of the city below — is the one photograph you will keep. Winter hours are short, so check the last admission time before you go.

   

   About 1.0 km to the next stop

8. 8

   17:30about 50 minDrinks

   Aperitivo at Cantinone del Vino già Schiavi

   Make your way back toward the Accademia for the city's most storied aperitivo stop — a narrow wine shop with cichetti laid out on the counter and bottles stacked floor to ceiling. Order a Soave, pick three or four bites, and join the locals on the bridge outside.

   More about Cantinone del Vino già Schiavi

   About 1.1 km to the next stop

9. 9

   19:30about 90 minDinner

   Dinner at La Zucca

   Finish in the Santa Croce neighbourhood at La Zucca, a restaurant with a loyal following for its creative, vegetable-forward cooking — a welcome counterpoint to the seafood-heavy menus elsewhere. Book ahead if you can; the small dining room fills quickly.

   More about La Zucca