Temperature: 9°C excessive; 1°C low
Season: winter
Journey time from UK: 2 hours
Time distinction: GMT +1
February is carnival time in Venice, which makes it both the easiest time to come back, or the worst. Noblemen clink swords in St Mark’s Sq., courtesans cloaked in purple silk drift down the Grand Canal on plumed gondolas, and gilded masks permit royalty to stroll freely among the many commoners. What looks as if a Canaletto portray involves life yearly when revellers collect for 3 weeks of masked debauchery. These looking for the quiet charms of the floating metropolis shall be disillusioned, however in the event you dare to hitch the huddled plenty you may be rewarded with an otherworldly expertise. You’ll be able to flaunt your finery on the Rialto, dance the quadrilles on the Doge’s ball and get up the subsequent morning in an opulent four-poster mattress in your very personal Venetian palace questioning if it was all a dream.
Sustainable journey tip: You’ll be able to take a prepare all the best way from England to Venice: a carbon-friendly strategy to arrive in a notoriously over-visited metropolis. After arriving in Paris on a morning Eurostar from London (2 hours, quarter-hour), take a high-speed TGV prepare to Turin (5 hours, 40 minutes). Keep in a single day, then catch the three-hour Trenitalia Frecciarossa direct service to Venice.
The place to remain: Palazzo Cristo, a renovated Sixteenth-century home with authentic uncovered timber beams, Carrara marble, oak parquet flooring and cover beds, all executed in a pared-back palette, 1,000,000 miles from the standard gilded ceilings and Murano-glass extravagance. A more moderen addition to St. Mark’s Sq. is Ca’di Dio, the place the interiors of the 66-room resort are molto stylish, and plenty of take pleasure in views of the lagoon. For a keep that seems like a finest saved secret, this Airbnb residence’s canal-side balcony makes it probably the most romantic Airbnbs in Europe. For extra locations to remain, see our information to the most effective inns in Venice.
Above: Palazzo Contarini Polignac, Dorsoduro.
