Photos and videos, this one included, cannot fully prepare you for just how beautiful Venice really is. Characterised by its enchanting canals and graceful gondolas, grand architecture and colourful houses, bustling squares and tiny backstreet, Italy's floating city is a truly unique destination. In this video we'll show you how we spent three and a half days in Venice to help give you ideas for your own trip. I will say now that you can't see everything the city has to offer in just three days, but it is long enough to visit a number of attractions while also giving you time to relax on a square or by the water. Sample the local food and drink, or simply wander the maze like streets, soaking it all in. To help you make the most of your time in Venice, I'll also add useful tips throughout the video and provide any extra practical information you'll need at the end of the itinerary.

Finally I've created a map of all the attractions I mentioned in this video and I've added it to the description below. After dropping our luggage at our hotel, we started our trip with the best way to truly fall in love with Venice and that is to simply walk around the streets. No matter where you walk, it will feel like every time you turn a corner, you're greeted by yet another pretty street, tiny bridge or picture a square, so I say just pick a direction and off you go. There are six districts on the historic central island of Venice. We eventually found ourselves in Canaregio, which is the northernmost district. When compared to areas like Sam Marco, the Canaregio district doesn't feel that busy, at least for Venice. While exploring the old streets, a dundin shittered windows and washing lines is an enjoyable activity in its own right, I have a couple of suggestions of things you could look out for as you walk.

The Jewish ghetto in Venice, which was founded in 1516, is thought to be the oldest of its kind in your rip. Rulers of the city confine Jews to a small island in the Canaregio district. During the day, they were allowed to trade and do business, but at night they were forced to remain within the ghetto gates. The Jews weren't given their freedom until the 18th century. If you want to learn more about the history and culture of Venetian Jews, then you can visit the small Jewish Museum or book yourself on a guided tour. Among the multitude of squares you'll come across one you should look out for is Campo de Mori. Although it might not stand out immediately, it does have a rather peculiar story. Around the square, you'll see the statues of three merchants' brothers. Legend has it that they tried to scam an old Venetian woman who figured out their plan and cursed the brothers, turning them into stone.

They still stand here today as a cautionary tale to all. While you're in the Canaregio district, squeeze your way down Calivorisco. At only 53 cm wide, this is the narrowest street in Venice. If you don't make it to Calivorisco or you just can't find it, then there are other super narrow streets in Venice for you to look out for. We barely scratched the surface of this neighbourhood and in retrospect, we think we would have liked to have spent a full day there. However, walking around the Canaregio was a perfect start to our Venice trip. We broke a power exploring with a food and drink stop along the fundamental misery cordia, a canal lined with cafes, bars and restaurants. It was here that we had our first spritz of more than I'm going to admit on the internet. A spritz is a really popular drink that you will find everywhere in Venice.

It's made of Prosecco, soda water and bitter, and then usually garnished with either a slice of orange or an olive. You are the spritz based on which bitter you would like. The ones we saw most commonly offered were Apparol, Campari and Select, with Select being the local apparative. From most to least bitter tasting, it goes Campari, Select and then Apparol. We also ordered our first and definitely not last Chiquetti of the holiday. Chiquetti are small bites of food, often consisting of things like christenis, which are small pieces of toasted bread served with a variety of possible different toppings. A couple that we were told were among the most common in Venice with a sardines in onion and vinegar sauce and the creamed cut. If you don't like seafood there then don't worry, you'll find plenty of delicious meat and vegetarian options on offer too.

We also tried Palpeque, which were small fried balls of meat or fish. You'll find other types of Chiquetti on offer, but these were probably the sorts of things that we saw the most often. Typically you order Chiquetti at the bar and then eat either inside or outside, with some places having tables, food or sit and others you would stand outside the bar. It would usually cost around two euros in item although there could be some variation. You'll find bars selling Chiquetti all over the city, but the ones we tried that were our favourites were Baccaro Ebraco, which I've probably mispronounced which was on the Vondamenta Misery Cordia and Osteria L Square in the Ducadoro districts, an area that we'll be visiting later in this video. An added bonus of this last one is that as well as the fantastic food, if you eat outside you will also have the perfect view over a gondola repair boat yard while you enjoy Chiquetti and spritz.

A word of warning though, when we ate there they gave us napkins to cover our Chiquetti to protect it from the nearby seagulls. However, when I went to take a bite of Sam and Christine, this little b**** swooped in from nowhere and snatched the salmon clear off the top, leaving me with just a dry piece of bread. It was equally annoying and impressive, so keep your eyes peeled for these seagulls. There are other types of budget options for food that you can grab without visiting a sit-down restaurant, but I'll cover those at the end of this video. For day 2 which was our first full day in Venice, we plan to visit a few of the major sites. Of the whopping 400 bridges sprinkled throughout Venice, there is one that everybody aims to see, Rialto Bridge. There are four bridges spanning Venice's Grand Canal and the intricately designed Rialto Bridge is the oldest one.

It does get really busy, we got there around 9am and there were plenty of people on the bridge already. From Rialto Bridge you can stand and watch in multitude of different boats glide down the Grand Canal. That's the sound of the fire brigade. The historical centre of Venice is of course completely car-free and that includes the emergency services. What you're about to see is what it's like when the fire brigade needs to get somewhere in Venice and why if an emergency boat passes you and you're start mending your own business on the steps further canal, you need to move quickly unless you want a soaking. Close by is the buzzing Rialto Market. If yourself catered in Venice and want to pick up some fish, fruit and veggies, herbs or spices, all you simply enjoy the atmosphere of a lively market, then make sure you get to here early.

From here we went to Library Aqua Alta, which according to Google Maps was an 11-minute walk away. However a tip I would give you is to take any estimated walking time in Google and double it. Navigating the area can be challenging even if you're using a map. We discovered that our GPS occasionally became disorientated, making it difficult to pinpoint our exact location. You will also find yourself repeatedly stopping whenever you turn a corner and you'll met fight another idyllic canal, tiny bridge of beautiful square, and believe me that will happen a lot. While you might find this unusual bookshop on lists of Venice hidden gems, the word now seems to be very much out on this place, so don't expect to be browsing alone. The reason this bookshop is so special is they stack their mountains of new and used books in bathtubs, barrels, robots and even a gondola to protect them from flooding.

As well as looking through the huge array of books, you can also climb a staircase made entirely of books or sit in a gondola tied up at the back of the store. And next up was the church of Sansa Korea, which is a six minute walk away, so a 12 minute walk in Venice time. The Gothic Renaissance Church is dedicated to Sansa Korea, who was the father of Saint John the Baptist. While the beautiful church is free to enter, for just three euros you can visit the crypt, which has been permanently flooded by canal water. Walk along the raised brick pathway and see the columns, tombs and vaulted ceiling, all mirrored in the standing water. During our visit we found ourselves completely alone in the crypt, surrounded by utter silence, occasionally interrupted only by the sound of dripping water. The atmosphere was almost eerie, which actually added to the experience.

One of the only activities that we booked in advance of our trip was the secret itinerary's tour of Doja's Palace. From the 8th to the 18th century, the Doja or Duke was the highest official of the Republic of Venice. Over this 1000 year time frame there were 120 Doja's of Venice. The palace will be the elected Doja's residence and the place from where they governed Venice. On the tour you'll hear about some of the history of Doja's Palace and see parts of the building that you would otherwise miss, like the attic, the torture chamber and Casanova's prison cell. Hearing this story of the legendary Casanova's imprisonment and escape was probably the parts of the tour that I enjoyed the most. The tour was an hour and 15 minutes. It only runs a few times a day in either Italian, English or French, so I would recommend booking in advance to get a tour in a language that you understand.

After the tour you'll then free to explore the rest of Doja's Palace at your own pace. The power and wealth that Venice had is clear as you walk through this impressive building. Don't miss walking through the prison cells or crossing the bridge of size. The bridge of size was built to connect Doja's Palace with the prison. The bridge supposedly got its name from the convicted criminals who had died as they crossed it, taking in their last view of Venice before being locked away in the dark cells of the prison. Even if you don't visit Doja's Palace you can still view the bridge of size from the ground below. I'd recommend leaving yourself at least another two hours for exploring the palace, so really Doja's Palace plus the secret itinerary's tour is a good half day visit. Next up was the famous St Mark's Basilica.

You aren't allowed to take photos or videos inside the Basilica, although admittedly you will see people doing it anyway, so you'll just have to believe me when I say the inside is absolutely stunning. The walls are covered in huge mosaics made with real gold. To visit St Mark's Basilica we booked a skip the line ticket directly on the website. We just went through the entrance to the Basilica, but there are other options available if you want to add on extras like the museum. You can just show up if you like, but the weights do get really long, so I would try and plan ahead if I were you. Alternatively there are guided tours available if you would like to learn more about the Basilica. You can also book skip the line tickets or join another long cube to go up the Campanile. A lift takes you 323 feet to the top of the bell tower, where you will have amazing views of Venice and the lagoon.

We actually had another viewpoint in mind for a little later in the trip, so it didn't go up the Campanile as else. The next day we took ourselves on a DIY day trip of some of the nearby islands of Venice, Barano, Toccello, Mizzolbeau and Marano. This is a very popular activity for visitors to Venice, and while you can do this as part of a guided tour, if you would like to see how to visit the lagoon islands at your own pace, then keep watching. We started by catching the Vapareto out to Barano Island. The Vapareto is basically a water bus and a great option for getting around Venice if you don't want to walk or pay for a water taxi, as well as a convenient way to visit the nearby islands on a budget. I'll explain more about using the Vapareto during the practical information section at the end of this video.

To reach Barano we caught the Line 12 from Fundamentally Nova Stand A. Although the journey was around 45 minutes, it was really pleasant. As we caught the Vapareto before 9 o'clock in the morning, there was plenty of space to sit if you wanted, although we chose to stand along the edge and enjoy the views across the water. Some Vaparetoes have a few open air seats at the front or back of the boat. We managed to snag these on a different journey, and I would say they are the best spot to be on the Vapareto. Barano is a small island known for its colourful houses, pinks, blues, greens, yellows, walking the rainbow streets instantly makes you feel happy. Legend has it that these joyful houses were all painted in such bright colours to help the fishermen navigate their way back home in a thick fog.

The most well-known of all of these houses is Beppie's house. Unlike the other houses that are painted just one colour, Beppie's is covered in multicolored geometric shapes. Barano is also known for making the coveted Phoenician lace. To learn more you can visit the Smaller Lace Museum. Alternatively, you can browse or buy this intricate lace from one of the tiny shops. A tip is to visit this store, I'll put the name on the screen now, because towards the back of the shop they have a small but fascinating free exhibition of the lace collection, showcasing pieces that are hundreds of years old. I don't know if it's not very well advertised and people just don't know it's there, because when we visited we were the only ones looking around the exhibition. At some point you'll bound to come across the main square.

Once you're here there are a couple of things that you might want to look out for. A sixth century is Strianwell, a statue of the famous local composer, Geropie, and Barano's very own leaning tower. Barano is a small island, so you'll probably only spend about an hour or two walking around. As we arrived at 9.30, the island was initially very quiet. Barano's time parts of Barano felt quite busy, although you didn't really need to try very hard to find quieter, but still equally beautiful spots on the island. After spending the morning exploring, we crossed the long footbridge from Barano to the neighbouring island of Mizzorbo. We walked through a sleepy vineyard to Trittoria, Alamadalina, a seafood restaurant that we were hoping to try for lunch. Unfortunately, although we arrived as soon as the restaurant opened, it was already fully booked.

I wanted to mention it because the restaurant comes highly recommended for its reasonably prized, high quality, and locally sourced seafood dishes. After our lunch fail, we picked a restaurant back on Barano at Spranden. While it hadn't been our first choice of places to eat, we did really enjoy our clam pasta and fish of the day. The service here was friendly and the way to tell me that the delicious glass of Prosecco I ordered was made specifically for that restaurant, so all in all, it was a good spontaneous lunch decision. From Barano, we caught the Vapareto, the short distance to the Tranquil island of Torchello. Once you arrive, you can follow the canal for just 10 minutes until you reach a square. Here you'll find the Byzantine Church of Santa Fosca, and Torchello Cathedral, which is the oldest building in the Venetian Lagoon.

For five euros, you can go inside the seven-century cathedral and see the Byzantine mosaics, or you could purchase the tickets to just get up the bell tower. Unlike the Campanile at St Mark's Basilica, there is no lift to the top. However, most of the climb is on a ramp rather than stairs, so it's actually not bad. The views from the top across the farmland and surrounding water are absolutely worth it. There was something really calming about standing quietly and looking out over Torchello. After Torchello, we caught the now very busy Vapareto to Marano, an island known for its centuries-old tradition of glass making. Here you could visit a glass making workshop and see the process of live glass blowing and glass making first hand. I'll admit by the time we got to Marano, we were getting pretty tired and didn't really give the island the time it deserved.

We mainly ended up just strolling along the canal, stopping by a few of the shops toward my other beautiful glass before catching the Vapareto back to the city. On our final day, we started the morning with a gondola ride. We had undenoured about whether to do this on our trip to Venice. On one hand, gondolas are an iconic symbol of Venice and taking a relaxing ride and one of these traditional boats gives you the opportunity to see Venice from another perspective. On the other hand though, it's 80 euros for 30 minutes and that's if you go during the day, in the evening the price goes up to 100 euros for 35 minutes. These prices are per boats rather than per person which does make it better value if there's a group of you, but there is no denying that this is expensive. In the end we decided hey, you only love once we could get hit by a Vapareto tomorrow, let's do the gondola ride.

You can catch a gondola from many different places around the city, with the gondolas taking you on different routes depending on where you start from. We caught our gondola from the sand polar side of the Grand Canal, not too far from the Rialto Bridge. This gave us a good mix of some time on the Grand Canal, but most of the rides being spent floating down the small, quieter canals. Our gondola ride was really relaxing, plus we did like that the gondolaia pointed out different sights along the way. However, I don't think you should feel as though you have to do a gondola ride just because you're in Venice. It's a unique and enjoyable activity, but if you don't want to spend the 80 euros then personally, I don't think you're really missing out and you can still get out and explore tiny canals and back streets on foot.

From here we took a stroll through the sandmarker area towards the Vapareto stop, just east of Dose's Palace. On our way we passed the Palazzo Contorini del Bovelo. One of the reasons you might want to visit this 14th century palace is to see the amazing spiral staircase. From here we took a short break in the Royal Gardens. Despite being tuxed right next to St Mark Square, these gardens were surprisingly calm and quiet. Because they are only very small, I wouldn't say that they were getting out of your way for, but if you're in need of a break from the massive crowds at St Mark's or you fancy a sit down in the shade, the least pretty gardens could be just what you need. Our next stop was a quick Vapareto ride over to San Giorgio Maggiore. The chit itself is free to enter, but for 80 euros you could take a lift to the top of the bell tower where you will have beautiful views over St Mark Square, the Grand Canal, and the surrounding lagoon islands.

With fewer crowds and lower costs this is a great alternative to St Mark's Campanile. We continued our day in Dorsadoro, a large neighbourhood to the southwest of San Marco. In Dorsadoro you can visit one of many churches, museums or art galleries. If you like modern art then it's here that you'll find the renowned Peggy Guggenheim collection. We found our way to Academia Bridge, which connects the San Marco area with the Academia Gallery in Dorsadoro. While this wooden bridge may not be as famous as the Rialto Bridge, I personally found the views from there to be just as beautiful, if not better. You might recognise this vantage point as you'll often see photos of Venice taken from here, looking down the Grand Canal towards the dome of Santa Maria de la Salute. Santa Maria de la Salute is free to enter and worth adding to your itinerary.

This Grand Basilica was built in 1630 to commemorate the end of a devastating plague outbreak, which killed around one third of the population of Venice. Inside the Basilica, eight chapels around the airy Spacia centre. Admire the geometric marble floor and gaze up at a tall dome ceiling. That night we headed to Campo Santa Margarita, a large popular square lined with plenty of bars and cafes that was located conveniently close to our hotel. Three hours for a delicious glass of plastic, while sitting at a little outdoor table watching the world go by was the perfect end to our trip. The largest and closest airports of Venice is Marco Polo Airport. There are a few ways to reach Venice from the airport, bus, taxi, evaporator or one of the awesome looking water taxis. The best way to travel will mainly depend on the location of your accommodation and of course your budget.

As the historic area of Venice is car free, Overland transports can't take you further than Piazzalo Roma, so bus or car taxi might not be the best option for you unless you're staying near this area as you'll either need to catch another form of transport on from there or navigate to your luggage over many bridges. As we was staying just a few minutes walk away, we caught the bus. There were two bus companies, ATVO and ACTV. Their ATVO ones are dedicated airport coaches with plenty of luggage storage, whereas ACTV or city buses. We just bought our tickets in the airport at an automated ticket machine, although there was also a ticket office in the arrivals hall. Now let's talk about catching the evaporator. It costs 9 euros 50 for a single journey up to 75 minutes. If you're going to use the evaporator multiple times then it might be worth you buying a pass.

They are available for 1, 2, 3 or 7 days. You don't buy your ticket on the evaporator itself, so make sure you buy it before you board. If you do go for a multi-day pass, it's useful to know that the ticket does not activate until you use it for the first time. To activate your ticket, simply scan it at an electronic reader as you board the evaporator. For example, we purchased our two-day tickets from a ticket machine at the airport, but we did not start using it until day 3 of our trip. In this case, our tickets two-day period didn't start until the moments we scanned it for the very first time. How long you should spend in Venice is highly subjective, depending on your interests, your budget and the pace that you like to travel. Hopefully our video has shown you that you can easily fill three or four days, especially if you want to visit the likes of Barano.

For us, I think that as we would have liked to spend more time exploring the Canaretio and Ducadoro districts, another day or two would have been perfect. But we do like to spend a lot of time just walking around new places and taking it all in, so it all depends on your travel style. We already spoke about Chiquetti, but what about those other quick food options that are easy on the wallet? When in Venice, you can't beat fresh pasta to go. There are a few places where you can grab yourself a box of hearties to getty, but we went to Dalmorrow's. Choose your pasta type, sauce and toppings and away you go. We shared a box of delicious al dente, squidding pasta with olives for 8 euros. Seafood fans can also try fried fish in a cone. We got this hefty portion of mixed fish, shrimp and squid from Frito Inn for 8 euros 50.

Another popular option is Tramazzini. These small, crustless sandwiches are made with soft white bread that's completely stuffed to the brim with a whole variety of possible different fillings. Meat, fish, egg, we saw so many different types on offer. We particularly recommend trying the ones that are bar-alertiletta in the Ducedoro district, but you will find them everywhere. Then this might not be known for having the best pizza, but grabbing a slice while you're out and about is still a delicious option on the go. You typically pay either by wait or by the slice. Last but definitely not the least is gelato. There is nothing better than a cold creamy gelato to keep you going on a hot stay. My next bit of advice would be to bring mosquito repellent. Mosquitoes love those beautiful canals just as much as we humans do, so if you're visiting in the warmer months you could get bitten a lot.

Three public toilets are not common in Venice, and will usually cost you about 1 euro 50, so take advantage of custom toilets when you visit restaurants, bars or museums. The tap water in Venice is perfectly safe to drink, so keep your eyes peeled for water found in dotted around the city and tap up your bottle whenever you see one. The cost of visiting Venice can vary massively depending on factors like where you stay, where you eat, and what activities you plan to take part in. According to budgetyourtrip.com the average visitor spends around 230 euros per day for accommodation, food, local transport, entertainment and tours. For us I would say that was about rights. On this budget we managed all the activities shown in this video. A small three star hotel that was walking distance from all the attractions but not right in the heart of some market.

And in terms of food and drink we would usually have a small pastry and coffee for breakfast, then usually one restaurant a day, and then to Keti or to go food for the rest of the day. The restaurants we went to were nice but not high end. We would typically drink Prosecco or House wine, then for food we would usually have a main plus either an appetiser or dessert. I hope you found our travel guide helpful. We have a playlist of other destinations in Europe which I'll link here if you're looking for other ideas via future travels. Thanks for watching!