Venice in 3 days

If I only have three days in Venice, how should I spend them?

Day 1

Kill two birds with one stone by being at the Basilica di San Marco before it opens at 9:45am; that way you (a) get to see its treasures and the thousands of square feet of glittering mosaics swathing its interior, and (b) won't have to wait in a long line, which can stretch the wait to as long as an hour or more later in the day.

Don't dawdle too long, however, because you have to be next door at the Doge's Palace by 11:35pm to take your (pre-booked) "Secret Itineraries" tour for an insider's glimpse into the hidden offices, courtrooms, archives, and prisons from which the true Venetian Republic ruled for 900 years.

Make sure you take the time to ride the elevator up inside the Campanile di San Marco for stupendous city panoramas.

After lunch, tour the Ca' d'Oro, a glorious private palace on the Grand Canal now turned into a museum and art gallery. Cross the Rialto Bridge to see the dozens of Tintoretto paintings in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, then round off the day with a chichetti crawl through the bacari bars around the Rialto Market.

Day 2

Venice has its fair share of monuments, museums, and decorated churches, but frankly just about the best thing you can do with your second morning is ignore all the sights and just wander the streets aimlessly. If you can, try to get lost. Honestly. I do it all the time, and it's great. You'll stroll past slowly decaying Gothic palaces decorated with pointy Byzantine windows, stumble across pocket-sized campielli (squares) where local kids are kicking a soccer ball around a medieval well, and duck into the shade of a tiny bar to share a glass of wine with the well-weathered locals. Ahhhh; perfect.

To best avoid the tourist crowds, head deep into the residential neighborhoods of Castello (especially in the eastern half); northern Cannaregio, especially the Ghetto (the medieval Jewish quarter); and La Giudecca, another large Venetian island not connected to the rest by any bridge.

Now that you've recharged your mental batteries and drunk in some of Italy's dolce far niente ("the sweetness of doing nothing"), cross the Grand Canal into the Dorsoduro neighborhood to spend the afternoon engaged in some hardcore art appreciation. Visit the Accademia Gallery for its stupendous collection of Old Masters paintings, then continue to the nearby Peggy Guggenheim for one of Europe's best galleries of early modern works from the 20th century. If you find you still have the time (and energy), try to squeeze in a visit to the Ca' Rezzonico, another historic patrician palace restored with a small painting gallery.

Spend the evening before dinner just wandering aimelssely around Venice's labyrinth of alleyways. After dinner, sit on Piazza San Marco to listen to the dueling trios playing for the tables in front of competing chichi cafes.

At some point on days 1 or 2 —or perhaps when you arrive in town or as you are leaving—be sure to hop aboard the no. 1 or no. 82 vaporetto line to for a poor man's cruise of the Grand Canal from Piazza San Marco to the Ferrovia (train station).

Day 3

It's time to get out of Venice—or at lreast the tourist-ridden downtown part of the city. Take your third day to do perhaps my favorite activity all of Venice: a circle tour of the best outlying island in the Venetian lagoon.

Start with Murano, a miniature Venice and home to the lagoon's famed glass-blowing workshops. Continue on to Burano, a quiet fishing vilage famous for its hand-tatted lace and for the eye-popping, super-saturated, wonderfully clashing colors of its houses.

End up on Torcello, a glimpse of what Venice must have looked like when the canals still had mud banks, but which was once a glorious city larger than Vencie itself of which all that remains is a gloriously mosaicked Byzantine church in the middle.

If you time it just right, you'll be motoring back to Venice itself right as the setting sun dramatically backlights the teetering bellwotwers of the city and throws sparkling streamers across the waters of the lagoon.

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