Venice, off the crowds

Venice is one of those places everyone should visit once in a lifetime. It is also a place that, if visited in the wrong conditions, can leave travelers with a bittersweet taste (sometimes more bitter than sweet). I was lucky to be born 30km away from Venice and in my 37 years I've had the pleasure of visiting it in basically every condition.

At this point I have built a pretty good sense of the best time and way to do it. So, in this guide I want to share a few tactics I've tested over many tours of the city. Simple, opinionated, and built specifically around the unique shape and rhythm of Venice.

This is also the philosophy behind OffTheBoot: helping travelers experience authentic Italy off the crowds, the way a local friend would show it to you.

The right month, the wrong month

In a city the size and shape of Venice, overtourism is real. On a normal day tourists outnumber residents almost 2 to 1 (the historic center has around 49,000 residents and sees on average 80,000+ daily visitors), and on peak days they can be 3 times the resident count. In practice this means that on a bad day, you cannot walk on the streets (at least some of them, more on that later).

Picking the right season is critical, and not only for the crowds. The other reason is heat. I've got Indian friends who were shocked by how warm Venice (and north Italy in general) can be in summer. Humidity peaks, no wind, and temperatures can easily reach 35-38°C. Add sweaty tourists in narrow streets and the nightmare becomes reality.

I also tend not to recommend winter, since there's a higher chance of rain and it gets pretty cold. But if you're used to it, it can be a great time to visit. Fewer crowds, and if you're lucky, very clear skies. Locals tend to be friendlier, and it's a real pleasure to duck into a bacaro for the famous Venetian cicchetti to warm up between attractions.

If cold weather isn't your thing (whatever that means), and you also want to avoid the warm summer, the 2 best periods are:

• Mid March to Mid June
• September to end of November (from mid October rains can pick up)

Weekends, holidays, and the big events

One thing we travelers tend to forget is that tourists can also come from the same country. In Venice this is very true, especially on weekends and public holidays. It's the perfect day trip for millions of Italians, from Milan to Florence to Trieste (all within 2hrs by train).

This is especially true when the big events are in town: Carnival (late January to mid February, depending on years), Redentore (third weekend of July), Venice Film Festival (late August to early September). Don't get me wrong. Attending one of those events is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but be mindful of the crowds. You'll never feel "alone" in Venice, so if you can avoid those days, do it. You won't regret it.

Where to walk, and when

This is the part I promised earlier. The streets you literally can't walk on at peak times aren't random, they're all on the same line: Lista di Spagna out of the train station, Strada Nova through Cannaregio, across the Rialto Bridge, then down the Mercerie into San Marco.

Venice is shaped like a funnel. The wide end covers Santa Lucia (the train station), Piazzale Roma (the parking lot) and Tronchetto (parking + ferry), while the narrow end is Rialto and San Marco.

Walking through San Polo is a must, the question is when to do it. If you're in low season on a weekday, you'll be fine at any time during the day. So go ahead and explore at your own pace. But if you can't avoid peak season or a weekend, here are a few tips to still visit the famous areas without the crowds.

1. Reverse the funnel (possibly early in the morning): since most of the daily tourists start in the Santa Lucia area, do the opposite. Start from San Marco and walk back through San Polo and Santa Croce, the two sestieri between San Marco and the train station. Ideally start around 8am and reach Santa Lucia in 3-4 hours. This way you'll only hit the busy spots at the end. Along the way you can break the walk with a few proper stops: the Rialto Bridge (early morning is the only time the photos are unreal), Campo San Polo (the largest square in Venice after Piazza San Marco, and almost always quiet), and the Frari Basilica with Titian's altarpiece, one of the most underrated stops in the city. To get to San Marco in the first place, just take the vaporetto (ferry boat) from any of the stops around the city. Two things to keep in mind. Venice is one of the best places in the world to walk and get lost, but consider using the vaporetto a few times to optimise your day and avoid exhaustion. If you go that route, look into daily passes. A single ride is €9.50 and only valid for 75 minutes, while the 1-day pass is €25, the 2-day €35, the 3-day €45 and the 7-day €65. Three rides in a single day and the day pass already pays for itself, anything longer and it's a no-brainer.
2. Consider less busy areas at peak times: let's be honest, most tourists stick to the Instagram spots. You should avoid them as the plague at peak times (common Italian way of saying, lol). The first reason is obvious. The second is that Venice is one big photographic set, getting stuck on the same famous Instagram spot is just dumb. Every time I visit I find at least 5 spots I'd never noticed before (and I've been there a lot). Finding them is the real experience. So get lost in a less touristic sestiere (district) at peak times. To name a few: Dorsoduro for student vibes, Cannaregio for the best local aperitivo scene in Venice (Fondamenta della Misericordia at sunset is unbeatable), and Castello, where locals still live.

Leave Venice to enjoy Venice

Honestly, the single best off-the-crowds move in Venice is to leave Venice. The lagoon is full of small inhabited islands, most of them reachable with the same vaporetto pass, and on each one the tourist count drops dramatically the moment you step off the boat. So, if you have a spare day in the weekend or just want to take a breath for one afternoon consider doing that. A few worth your time:

• Burano: the one with the painted houses. Yes, Instagram has discovered it, but go before 10am or after 5pm and it's still magical. Bonus, the local lace tradition is worth a look.
• Torcello: technically the oldest inhabited part of the lagoon, today down to around 10 residents. The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta has 12th-century Byzantine mosaics that hold up against Ravenna. You can do Burano and Torcello in the same half-day.
• Mazzorbo: connected to Burano by a footbridge that 95% of visitors never cross. There's a working vineyard and a Michelin-starred restaurant (Venissa) hidden behind ancient walls, and almost no one else.
• Sant'Erasmo: the lagoon's vegetable garden. Rent a bike at the ferry stop, ride past artichoke fields and small beaches, and you're in real countryside 25 minutes from Piazza San Marco.
• Murano: yes, the famous glass-making island is also out there. It's by far the busiest of the lagoon stops, so go only if you specifically want to see a glass workshop. Otherwise prioritize the four above.

Where you should sleep

Crowds are also reflected in the price and quality of accommodation. Skip San Marco and San Polo. The most picturesque and well-located stays are there, close to the busiest areas, but that translates into higher prices and lower quality for what you pay.

Venice is small enough that moving around is part of the pleasure after a full day among the tourist attractions.

Castello

The most local of the sestieri, and probably my pick if you've already done the San Marco circuit at least once. Castello is the largest district in Venice and also the most residential. You'll see kids playing in the campi, laundry hanging between windows, and shops that aren't selling glass trinkets.

Via Garibaldi is the main artery, a wide street (rare in Venice) where locals do their grocery shopping and have a spritz at sunset. From there you can wander into the Biennale Gardens (free outside Biennale season) and the Arsenale area, the old shipyard that built the Venetian Republic. Accommodation here is meaningfully cheaper than in San Marco, and Piazza San Marco is still just a 15-minute walk away.

Dorsoduro & Giudecca

Dorsoduro sits on the south side of the main island, and it's where most of the university crowd hangs out. The vibe is younger, the bars are cheaper, and the waterfront promenade along the Zattere is one of the best places to walk at sunset (looking across to Giudecca). You also get the Accademia, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and Punta della Dogana within a 10-minute walk of each other.

Giudecca is the long thin island right across from Zattere. A 5-minute vaporetto ride and you're in a completely different Venice: residential, quiet, with the best view of the main city skyline you'll find anywhere. Staying on Giudecca is a slight commitment (you'll hop on the vaporetto a couple of times a day) but the price-to-quality ratio is unbeatable.

The pro tip: Padova

Ok this one might be a bias of mine, and probably not the right tip for first-time Venice travelers. But if you want to combine a couple of days in Venice with a stop in a beautiful, authentic Italian city, this is the perfect combo.

Padova sits just 30 minutes by train from Venice and has a less crowded, more authentic city center. Here you'll not only find better accommodation for a lower price, but also get a real taste of how a mid-sized Italian city lives.

Authentic trattorie and osterie (traditional restaurants and wineries) sit at every corner. The aperitivo culture around Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Frutti is what most Italian cities wish they had: students, locals, after-work crowds all spilling into the squares with a spritz in hand from 6pm onwards.

And there's some serious cultural weight backing the food and drinks: the Scrovegni Chapel with Giotto's frescoes (book ahead, it sells out weeks in advance), the Basilica of Sant'Antonio, the University of Padova where Galileo taught for 18 years, and Prato della Valle, one of the largest squares in Europe. You arrive for one night, you end up wishing you had booked two.

I hope you will enjoy your next trip to Venice as most locals and frequent visitors do. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more tips about Venice and northeast Italy.

At OffTheBoot we help travelers and explorers discover our regions the way locals would. Want us to plan your next trip? Start here. Already planning, just want a few free tips? Drop a line at info@offtheboot.com.

Safe travels!

Cesare