What should I avoid in Venice?

The gondola is probably the single most inflated experience in Venice. The regulated fare is €80 for a 30-minute ride during the day and €100 after 7pm, but gondoliers near Ponte di Rialto and the Bacino Orseolo staging area routinely quote €120 to €150, counting on the fact that most visitors don't know the tariff. If you want the Grand Canal from the water without the markup, the traghetto is a standing gondola ferry that crosses at 7 points along the canal for €2. The one at Santa Sofia, near the Ca' d'Oro palace, runs until early evening and drops you at the Rialto Market side. Locals stand. Tourists sit. Nobody minds either way.

Piazza San Marco is worth seeing at 7am, when the only sound is pigeons and the slap of water against the quay. It is not worth eating at. Caffè Florian, open since 1720, charges €12 for a cappuccino at a table plus a €6 surcharge when the house orchestra plays. A coffee standing at the bar costs €1.50. Two streets behind the piazza, toward Campo Santa Maria Formosa, the prices drop by half and the food improves. Osteria alle Testiere in Castello seats 22 people and serves a sarde in saor that tastes of vinegar, pine nuts, and caramelized onions, nothing like the bland version at the tourist spots. Book 2 weeks ahead. The restaurants to skip are easy to spot. They have laminated picture menus in 6 languages, a man waving you in from the calle, and a €22 plate of spaghetti that came out of a microwave.

Marco Polo Airport sits on the mainland, about 8 km north of the historic center. Water taxis from the airport dock charge €110 to €130 for a direct ride to your hotel's nearest landing. The Alilaguna water bus runs 3 lines to different parts of the city for €15 per person, and the ride to San Marco takes about 75 minutes. The ATVO bus to Piazzale Roma costs €10 and takes 25 minutes, which is the fastest option if your hotel is in Cannaregio or Santa Croce. On the streets, do not accept roses, bracelets, or bird seed from strangers. Someone puts an object in your hand, then demands €5 to €20. Feeding pigeons in the piazza has been banned since 2008, with fines of €50 to €200.

At the Murano vaporetto stop, men in suits will offer you a "free tour" of a glass factory. These are commission agents steering you to shops that pay them per head. The furnaces worth visiting, like Vetreria Artistica Ballarin or Simone Cenedese, don't need touts. If the piece doesn't carry the Vetro Artistico Murano trademark, a sticker with a blue and gold logo, it might have been made overseas and shipped to the island. From October through March, acqua alta pushes seawater over the lowest areas of the city. The square at San Marco sits about 80 cm above sea level and floods first. The MOSE barrier system, completed in 2020 after €5.5 billion in construction costs, has reduced major flooding, but water still reaches ankle height on 4 to 6 days per month in November and December. Pack waterproof shoes or buy the €10 plastic boot covers sold at every tabacchi.

Venice has over 400 bridges, and nearly all of them have steps. Rolling a suitcase across the city is loud, slow, and rough on the arms. If your hotel is more than a 10-minute walk from the nearest vaporetto stop, consider a luggage service like Trasbagagli, which will move your bags from Piazzale Roma or Santa Lucia station for about €30. In July and August, temperatures reach 33°C and the humidity sits above 70%. The combination of heat, stagnant canal water, and crowds of up to 100,000 day-trippers produces a smell near the smaller canals in Dorsoduro and San Polo that stays with you. Venice introduced a €5 day-tripper entry fee in April 2024, charged between 8:30am and 4pm on peak days, so check the calendar before you arrive.