City focus
A Weekend Alone in Venice
Venice is small enough to learn in two or three days. The historic center can be crossed on foot in under an hour, and the vaporetto reaches every quarter and island without a car. There are no cars, buses, scooters or horns, so whatever you carry, you carry on foot over bridges.
The bacaro, the neighborhood wine bar, makes eating alone the normal way to eat. You stand at the counter, order one or two things and leave when you choose. Hotels and restaurants are used to guests arriving by themselves.
Where to base yourself
For the best all-round balance, choose Cannaregio. Its streets are busy with residents into the evening and well lit along the main routes, and it is a straightforward run to the station. The sights are a walk or a boat away, and you accept that.
If the stay is short and you want the Basilica, the Piazza and the Grand Canal at your door, San Marco suits a first visit. You pay for it with daytime crowds, inflated street-level prices and a premium on every room.
Whichever you choose, ask how many bridges lie between the room and the nearest vaporetto stop, and ask for the walking route. A good hotel answers precisely. Ask about stairs too. Many historic buildings have no elevator, or one that stops short of the top floor.
The shape of a good day
Put the major sight in the morning, before the day-trippers arrive. Dorsoduro makes a good Saturday. Reach the Gallerie dell’Accademia soon after it opens, give it two hours and look at the Venetian masters first.
Walk to Campo Santa Margherita for lunch at Ristorante Bakarò, an easy place for a solo diner to settle in. Afterward, stroll to the Squero di San Trovaso, the boatyard, and on to the Zattere promenade for a coffee. Walk along it to the church of the Salute, which is the place to be as the sun lowers over the Grand Canal.
In the late afternoon, take an ombra, a small glass of wine, at Cantine Schiavi on Fondamenta Nani. Dinner starts around eight, and nine is not unusual. Kitchens do not stay open indefinitely, so book ahead.
For Sunday, cross to Cannaregio, where Venetians still live, shop and drink. Walk through the Ghetto, whose synagogues are visited on guided tours, so check the arrangements first. Then follow the Fondamenta della Misericordia, eat cicchetti at a counter and finish the day with an aperitivo at Bacaro Ae Bricoe on the Fondamenta dei Ormesini, among residents. The station is a short walk back.
Eating alone
The bacaro is built for one. You find a space at the bar, catch the bartender’s eye, order a drink, look over the counter and the chalkboard, and choose one or two things. Cicchetti are small plates, eaten standing, with your fingers. Order more if you are hungry, ask for il conto and move on.
The giro d’ombra is the walk between bacari. Start around six with a Spritz and a cicchetto or two. By the third or fourth stop you have had dinner, learned a neighborhood and never been shown to a table for one. Cannaregio suits this best. Castello is quieter.
At a sit-down restaurant, a primo and a contorno, or two primi, is an ordinary dinner. A glass of wine is normal for one, and a meal easily takes two hours. Going back to the same bacaro three or four days running turns you into a regular.
The thing first-timers get wrong
They eat where the view is. The most expensive meals are on and around St. Mark’s Square. Restaurants with picture menus, or with staff soliciting on the street, are often mediocre and overpriced. Be skeptical of anywhere promising “authentic Venetian cuisine.” Walk a few streets away, look for a full counter and a local crowd, and book sit-down places by phone, email or through your hotel.
A few precautions apply as well:
Mind your bag. Theft is the risk to plan for: pickpocketing and bag snatching in crowded places, on the vaporetti and around the Rialto Bridge. Do not leave valuables on café tables.
Check the last boat. Know the last vaporetto before you go out. Before a day on Burano, Murano, Torcello or the Lido, check the last boat back and keep a margin.
Walk home by the lit routes. Most bars close around eleven or midnight, and the side calli in Castello are dark and empty after that. Keep your glass with you. Write down your hotel’s full address, with its sestiere and number.
Pick one counter, return to it, and the city starts to feel like yours.
If this is the nudge you needed, the free starter guide is the next step.
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