Travel Man: Venice, Italy
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Timeless Venice
A long weekend in Venice is like stepping back in time to the city’s golden age of the 18th century. Four days to surrender to Venice’s magic, where every bridge and every shimmering reflection on the water feels suspended in time. Beneath the golden mosaics of St. Mark’s Basilica and the grand arches of the Doge’s Palace, history blends seamlessly with legend. From the Rialto Bridge to the colorful islands of Murano and Burano, the lagoon reveals its many faces. Between hidden alleyways and the golden light of evening, Venice unfolds like a living dream.
Venice is built across more than 100 small islands in a lagoon in northeastern Italy. Canals do the job of streets, and cars don't exist. In the Travel Man episode, Richard Ayoade and Jo Brand see it in a way few visitors do. They learn to row a gondola themselves, eat their way through the city's cicchetti counters and stay at the Hotel Danieli, a grand hotel on the waterfront. This itinerary gives the rowing, the food and the big sights each their own stretch of time, so none of them gets squeezed. The link below opens the full trip, and you can change any part of it.
The Hotel Danieli on the Venetian waterfront, where the episode stays.
Row Before You Ride
Most visitors see Venice from a gondola seat, steered along by someone else. The episode flips that, and it's worth copying. Rowing schools in Cannaregio, a district of quiet canals away from the busiest crowds, teach visitors the stroke in a sandolo, a traditional flat-bottomed Venetian boat, with a working gondolier guiding you. Venetians row standing up and facing forward, with one long oar, which is harder than it looks and a lot of fun to get wrong. From that low position, the palazzos, the old merchant houses lining the water, rise straight out of the canal, and the layout of the city starts to make sense.
Eat Like a Venetian
Once you're back on land, you'll be hungry, and Venice has a specific way of handling that. Cicchetti are small bites, usually served on a slice of bread or a spoonful of polenta, and they're how Venetians eat between meals. They're served at bacari, traditional bars where you order at the counter and eat standing up. The episode gives them the respect they deserve.
Build an evening around a bacaro crawl, moving from counter to counter and ordering a plate or two at each stop. Look for mozzarella in carrozza, a fried mozzarella sandwich, and baccalà mantecato, whipped salt cod spread on polenta. Add a spritz, the bright orange aperitif of the Veneto region, and stand elbow to elbow with locals just off work. In the morning, the Rialto market beside the Grand Canal shows you where the fish and produce behind those plates come from.
Cicchetti at a Venetian bacaro counter.
Book the Big Sites Early
Some stops are worth planning ahead. The Doge's Palace was the seat of government for the Venetian Republic and the home of its elected ruler, the doge. St. Mark's Basilica, next door, is covered in gold mosaics. Both sell out in high season, so the itinerary prebooks skip-the-line entries for each.
From there, explore the city on foot. Venice is divided into six districts called sestieri, and each has its own character. Castello has bookshops, Dorsoduro has galleries and San Polo has the Frari, a vast Gothic church. Leave gaps between them for the aimless wandering the episode captured so well, since the narrow streets and small bridges make getting lost part of the appeal.
The link below opens the full trip. Add more rowing, more cicchetti or more time to wander, then click through and shape it into your own.
Timeless Venice
A long weekend in Venice is like stepping back in time to the city’s golden age of the 18th century. Four days to surrender to Venice’s magic, where every bridge and every shimmering reflection on the water feels suspended in time. Beneath the golden mosaics of St. Mark’s Basilica and the grand arches of the Doge’s Palace, history blends seamlessly with legend. From the Rialto Bridge to the colorful islands of Murano and Burano, the lagoon reveals its many faces. Between hidden alleyways and the golden light of evening, Venice unfolds like a living dream.
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