Venice: 4 Days Among Canals, Palaces and Gondolas

We arrived at dawn on the vaporetto from Tronchetto. By 7:30 St Mark's Square was empty, with the Caffè Florian musicians still setting up tables. We climbed the Campanile (€10) before the Basilica opened and had the views to ourselves.

St Mark's Basilica is free if you enter as a pilgrim before 9:30. For €7 extra we accessed the Pala d'Oro and the original horses. The golden mosaic light at first hour justifies the early alarm.

In the afternoon, Doge's Palace + Bridge of Sighs with the combined Musei di San Marco ticket (€30). The Itinerari Segreti secret tour (€32, booking required) goes down to the cells where Casanova escaped. Far more interesting than the standard visit.

Cannaregio is the neighborhood we fell most in love with. Real Venice lives here: laundry strung between facades, bakeries running for generations, and bacari (taverns) full of locals.

We had breakfast at Pasticceria dal Mas, pistachio croissants for €1.80. We walked along Fondamenta della Misericordia, the most photogenic spot at sunset. We visited the Jewish Ghetto, the first in the world (1516), with five synagogues hidden in the upper floors of the buildings.

For dinner, cicchetti: Venetian tapas. Cantina do Mori, Al Timon and Vino Vero — three stops, €3-4 per bite and house wine at €2. No bookings, no pretension, perfect.

We took vaporetto line 12 from Fondamente Nove (€10 one way) and gave a full day to the northern lagoon islands. ACTV day pass €25, easily worth it.

Murano (45 min): we visited a free glass-blowing workshop and the Museo del Vetro (€10). We bought directly from the artisan: an authentic millefiori necklace for €35, a tenth of the price at San Marco.

Burano is the village of colored houses, yes, but also of lace. We ate at Trattoria al Gatto Nero (book weeks ahead) — local risotto di gò, €28. Pricey, but unforgettable.

Torcello, almost deserted, was the discovery. The Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta has a 12th-century Last Judgment mosaic that gives goosebumps. €5 entry and zero queues.

Dorsoduro is the university and arts district. We started at Santa Maria della Salute (free), followed by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (€16): Pollock, Picasso, Dalí in the palazzo where the heiress lived with her 14 Lhasa Apso dogs.

The Accademia Gallery (€15) holds Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and the masterpieces of Titian and Veronese. Book online: saves 30 minutes of queue.

Our sunset gondola: €90 for 35 minutes (official daytime rate, €110 at night). We slipped through the small canals behind San Polo, far from the Grand Canal. Total cliché but, honestly, we'd do it again.