Exploring Venice means walking. Start your tour of discovery where everyone else goes: on the marketplace. From the piazzetta on the shore of the lagoon, walk past the Doges’ Palace to San Marco Basilica. Here you will see well-known sights: the basilica, an infinite number of pigeons, and cafés with grand pianos and violinists. It is pleasant to watch the musicians, but the moment you sit down, it gets expensive. Continue to the Academia. You will cross little canals, pass through wide and narrow alleys, see the less impressive rear side of some palazzi, and rest on one of the lovely squares along the way. Go with the flow and enjoy the variety of urban impressions.

The Palazzo Ducale was the centre of Venetian power. Here the doges lived, here the senate and great council met, here decisions were taken about war and peace in Europe. The outside of this impressive building is Gothic, but the interiors and furnishings are in the elegant, classical Renaissance style. A visit to the palazzo is highly recommended, but you may well have to wait a while to get inside. Smart visitors book a ticket or a guided tour in advance on the internet.

Take vaporetto no. 2 from S. Zaccaria (right next to the Doges’ Palace) to Santa Lucia Station. This takes you along the Giudecca Canal, where the big cruise ships enter and leave Venice, for a wonderful impression of the city’s location in the lagoon. At the station, change vaporetto and return to San Marco.

To have your aperitif in a stylish way, go to Harry’s Bar. It maybe is a world-famous place to enjoy drinks. Even Ernest Hemingway once drank his gimlets there. The famous “Bellini” was created in this bar – a drink mixed from the flesh of white peaches and prosecco. It’s really delicious, but to have a few of them is hard on your wallet.

For dinner, find a table in one of the countless trattorias, for example on the San Polo side of the Rialto bridge, and enjoy some of the simple but tasty Venetian cuisine. (Spaghetti vongole tastes sensational almost everywhere!).

Round off the evening with a stroll through night-time Venice and maybe have a last drink in one of the little bars along the way. Venetians go to bed early, so by midnight most bars are closed.

The Cannaregio quarter is on the margins of the tourist crowds. This was once the Jewish quarter, the first ghetto in the world. The name comes from the Venetian expression “gheto”, meaning casting metal, because the metal factories stood here. Today the district is home to ordinary workers and fishermen, and visitors get an impression of the city as it may have been before the tourist invasion. Synagogues and museums are testimony to the thriving Jewish culture of past times, so it is worth stopping here and there. The same applies to all the little restaurants and bars.

If you have enough time (approx. 4 hours) for an excursion, take a boat to Burano (line 12 from Fondamenta Nuova). The fishing village lies on four small islands and is famous for its pastel-coloured houses. This is a short trip back in time. The slow pace of life on Burano can make you forget that the bustle of Venice is only an hour away by boat. The highlight here is to enjoy some tranquillity and relaxation in picturesque surroundings.

Admittedly, I felt slightly uneasy. In a gondola, in this case a taghetto, with seven other passengers, crossing the Grand Canal standing up (!) – quite an experience. Above all, a very cheap (2 €) experience, compared to the prices for a normal tourist trip in a gondola. There are very few places (e.g. near the Fish Marked or the Academia), where you can cross the canal in the age-old way. This public ferry is truly a highlight of a visit to Venice, especially when you are back on dry land.

Peggy Guggenheim’s collection of classic modern art is world-famous and definitely worth a visit. In fact Venice has much more to offer than this. A host of museums and galleries spread across the entire city almost amount to a survey of the whole of art history. And then, of course, there is the Biennale. Every summer and autumn, art enthusiasts from all over the world flock to Venice. Alternating between fine art and architecture, each year the show gives an overview what is happening in the arts. At this time the area around the Arsenale is one big gallery.