Gallerie dell'Accademia Venice
The Gallerie dell'Accademia is Venice's main art museum, covering Venetian painting from the 14th to the 18th century. Entry is paid.
City in Italy
Venice
20 things to see4 of them free
Venice charges nothing to wander its labyrinth of canals, bridges, and hidden squares, and getting lost is genuinely the best free activity in the city. Budget travelers should eat cicchetti (Venetian tapas) at bacari bars, buy picnic supplies from the Rialto Market, and avoid every restaurant with a photo menu. Nearby Verona makes a cheaper, quieter base for the region, and visiting in late autumn or winter brings far thinner crowds and lower room rates than the packed summer months.
What to see
Things to do in Venice
4 of these cost nothing at all.
Basilica dei Frari
The Frari in Venice is a Gothic brick basilica built by Franciscan friars beginning in 1338, its construction spanning over a century and producing one of the largest churches in Venice. It contains Titian's Assumption of the Virgin (1518) above the main altar, widely considered one of the defining paintings of the Venetian Renaissance, and his tomb.
Burano
Every house on Burano must be repainted every two years, and residents need government approval before choosing a new color, which must differ from every adjacent building.
Campo Santa Margherita
Campo Santa Margherita is a large, lively square in Dorsoduro where Venetian students and locals gather in the evenings, surrounded by cheap bars, pizza-by-the-slice shops, and a daily fish market. Free.
Campo Santo Stefano
One of Venice's largest and liveliest squares, ringed by cafes and the Church of Santo Stefano. Free to enjoy at any hour, it sits on the main walking route between the Accademia Bridge and San Marco and makes a good people-watching rest stop.
Castello District
Venice's largest sestiere stretches from the tourist crush near San Marco into quiet residential neighborhoods. Free to wander, the eastern end around Via Garibaldi feels like a different city entirely, with local bars, laundry lines, and almost no visitors.
Dorsoduro
Dorsoduro is the quietest and most artistic sestiere (district) of Venice, home to the Gallerie dell'Accademia, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and the Punta della Dogana contemporary art space. Free to walk.
Fondamenta delle Zattere
The Fondamenta delle Zattere is a long south-facing waterfront promenade in Dorsoduro with views across the Giudecca Canal. Free.
Giudecca and Redentore Church
Giudecca is the long island south of Venice's main islands, reachable by vaporetto (standard transit ticket). Free to walk.
Gondola Traghetto
A traghetto is a gondola ferry that crosses the Grand Canal at points where there is no bridge, for a fraction of the cost of a tourist gondola ride (about 2 euros, standing up). Free to watch.
Grand Canal
The Grand Canal (Canal Grande) is Venice's main waterway, a reverse-S shape cutting through the city from the Santa Lucia railway station to the St. Mark's basin. The 3.8 km canal is lined with over 170 palaces spanning six centuries of Venetian architectural history.
Jewish Ghetto
The Venetian Ghetto is the world's first Jewish ghetto (the word "ghetto" comes from here), a small enclosed area in Cannaregio with tall buildings (Jews were forced upward when they could not expand outward), five synagogues, and a Holocaust memorial. Free to walk.
La Fenice
One of Italy's most famous opera houses, rebuilt twice from devastating fires, true to its name ("The Phoenix"). The opulent interior can be visited on guided tours when performances are not running.
Libreria Acqua Alta
Libreria Acqua Alta is a bookshop in Castello where books are stored in bathtubs, gondolas, and waterproof containers to survive the periodic flooding. Free to enter.
Murano
The glassmaking island where Venetian glass production was relocated in 1291. Watching a master glassblower work in a furnace is one of the lagoon's most memorable experiences. The Museo del Vetro traces the craft's 1,000-year history.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Peggy Guggenheim bought most of her collection between 1938 and 1946, working through the chaos of early World War II with a directive to purchase one work of art per day. The result is one of the most important concentrations of early modernist art in Europe: Pollock, Ernst, Magritte, Kandinsky, Duchamp.
Rialto Fish Market Morning
The Rialto Fish Market (Pescheria) operates in a neo-Gothic loggia on the Grand Canal every morning except Sunday and Monday. Free to browse.
San Giorgio Maggiore
San Giorgio Maggiore is a Palladian church on its own island across the basin from St Mark's Square. The church is free to enter.
St Mark's Campanile
The Campanile di San Marco is the 98-meter bell tower on St Mark's Square, the tallest structure in Venice. Entry is paid (elevator, no stairs).
Torcello
Venice exists because Torcello failed. In 452 AD, mainland Veneti fleeing Attila the Hun's destruction of Altinum settled Torcello first. By the 10th century it had 20,000 people, a cathedral, and a bishop. Malaria and silting gradually drove everyone to Venice proper, and today roughly 14 people live here.
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