DAY ONE

Start your morning early at St Mark’s Square, before the first tour groups arrive and the space fills with noise. The Basilica opens at 9.45am, so skip-the-line access booked in advance means you’ll avoid the queues. The Doge’s Palace stands directly beside the Basilica, and the Secret Itineraries tour, which also requires separate advance booking, reveals a very different building from the gilded public rooms: interrogation chambers, hidden passageways and the prison cells that the standard visit never reaches.

Time for lunch at Quadri, directly above the Gran Caffè Quadri on the square, combines one Michelin star, views directly across St Mark’s Square and a menu that takes Venetian cooking considerably further than the restaurants surrounding it. All’Arco, a few minutes towards the Rialto, delivers the opposite: one of the city’s most well-regarded bacari for cicchetti and wine by the glass. Arrive early: it fills quickly and closes in the afternoon.

This afternoon, take a walk from St Mark’s towards Rialto without worrying too much about the direct route: the small bridges, quiet canals and unexpected campi tend to become as memorable as the landmarks themselves.

A gondola ride may be the city’s most obvious cliché, but there is a reason it has endured: seeing Venice from canal level offers an entirely different perspective on the city – particularly through the narrower rii away from the Grand Canal, where the buildings close in and the reflections change the character of the water.

As evening falls, the streets around the Rialto begin filling with people moving between the bacari for the Venetian aperitivo ritual of ombra e cicchetti – a small glass of house wine and something to eat, repeated at several bars over the course of an hour or two.

Dinner awaits at Osteria alle Testiere (just 20 seats, a daily-changing menu based entirely on whatever arrived from the Rialto fish market that morning, and one of the most sought-after reservations in the city), or at Bacaro Jazz near the Rialto, which keeps things considerably more relaxed and stays open much later.

DAY TWO

Begin your morning by taking the vaporetto from Fondamente Nove to Murano, where the furnaces are active from early morning and the better workshops still take private commissions. The island is always busy, but in a distinctively different way to central Venice, with a slower pace and a stronger connection to everyday life, regardless of visitors.

Lunchtime beckons at Venissa on neighbouring Mazzorbo is one of the most distinctive dining experiences in the lagoon. The one Michelin-starred restaurant sits within a medieval walled vineyard producing Dorona, Venice’s only native grape. On Burano, Trattoria da Romano is a long-established institution and part of the brightly coloured canal-lined landscape. The island’s reputation often rests on its colours, but the atmosphere is equally appealing – quieter, more residential and far removed from the crowds around St Mark’s.

Your afternoon leads you back to Venice itself to spend time around the Rialto district and Cannaregio. Late afternoon is also an ideal hour for aperitivo, moving between bacari for small plates and glasses of wine before dinner.

For dinner, Antiche Carampane (closed Sundays and Mondays) is one of the city’s most celebrated classic restaurants for dinner, hidden deep enough in the streets between the Rialto and Campo San Polo that most visitors never find it, with a seafood menu created from that morning’s catch from the market a few streets away. Afterwards, Cannaregio is one of the best places in Venice for an evening wander, particularly along the Fondamenta della Misericordia, where locals gather beside the canal long after many other parts of the city have fallen quiet.

DAY THREE

Your final morning takes you to Dorsoduro, one of Venice’s most appealing districts and an area that’s often much calmer than San Marco. Begin at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, set in a low palazzo directly on the Grand Canal, its terrace looking out across the water to the churches of Salute and Redentore beyond. Then take some time to explore the surrounding streets, where galleries, workshops and small cafés sit between canals and peaceful piazzas.

A special lunch. Cantina Do Spade is a reliable choice for traditional Venetian cooking, or, in Castello, Local is a one Michelin-starred restaurant with a focus on organic Venetian produce, natural wines and a kitchen that works closely with small regional producers.

Afternoon adventures have you following the canals towards Ca’ Rezzonico, one of the best places to understand 18th-century Venice. Its furniture, frescoes and Tiepolo ceilings illuminate the city’s final years as a Republic, before continuing along the Zattere waterfront and exploring the smaller streets that branch away from the main routes. Venice often reveals itself most successfully when there’s no fixed destination.

Early evening is spent around Campo Santa Margherita, joining locals and students gathering for aperitivo before one final dinner.

For your farewell dinner, Estro combines an excellent wine list with thoughtful modern cooking. The Michelin-starred Met Restaurant provides a more formal farewell to the city. Afterwards, take one last walk through Venice after dark. The city seems entirely different at night, when the crowds thin, the canals quieten and the reflections of lights on the water become the only movement around you.