Venice: top attractions & road trip guide
Venice is a city built on more than a hundred small islands in a lagoon on Italy's northeastern coast, its neighborhoods connected by canals instead of roads and its streets replaced by footbridges and waterways. Founded over a thousand years ago, it grew into a maritime and trading empire whose wealth built the ornate palaces, basilicas, and bridges that still line the Grand Canal.
Venice is unlike any other stop on a road trip because cars cannot enter the historic city at all. Drivers leave their vehicles in large parking garages on the mainland at Piazzale Roma or on the nearby island of Tronchetto, then cross into the city by foot, water bus, or water taxi.
Top attractions
St. Mark's Basilica
A Byzantine-style cathedral covered in gold mosaics, built to house the relics of St. Mark and long the private chapel of the Doges of Venice.
Doge's Palace
The seat of Venetian government for centuries, a Gothic palace of pink-and-white patterned stone connected to the former prisons by the Bridge of Sighs.
Grand Canal
The main waterway winding through Venice in a broad S-curve, lined with centuries of merchant palaces best seen from a vaporetto or gondola.
Rialto Bridge
The oldest bridge across the Grand Canal, a stone-arched structure completed in 1591 lined with small shops on both sides.
Murano
A lagoon island where glassmakers were relocated in 1291 to reduce fire risk, still home to workshops producing traditional Venetian glass.
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