Question of the week: weekend travel plans are an ever-more popular topic of conversation at the moment - do you have a favourite European destination? "It's a tough pick, but Venice. I was expecting to be underwhelmed - what could possibly live up to those centuries of hype - and ended up falling in love. All those travellers and tourists and artists weren't wrong: the architecture is stunning, the water and the light combine to create a truly magical feel, and there's just so much history to explore, ancient and modern, religious and secular, not to mention all the arts!
There's no such thing as 'out of season' for Venice, but I've found it to be worthwhile to trade colder weather for fewer tourists, and you should definitely stay the night, partly because the crowd factor drops off after the tour groups go home, but mostly because the city has so many beautiful historic guest houses and hotels. The hostels and cheap hotels aren't that cheap, and particularly if there are a few of you travelling together to share a suite, sometimes staying in a beautiful palazzo isn't much more expensive, and well worth splashing out on.
Oh, and because Venice is an island, all the airports, budget or not, are a fair distance from the centre. If you can take the train, though, you'll pull into Santa Lucia and be right in the heart of things. You can take the train to Venice from almost any other Italian city, or all the way from London by train."
- Miss Alice
* Photo by James-Hetherington, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.
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