Quick Facts

Date
Wednesday, 20 December 2023 — Day 10 of 14, one day after arriving by train from Florence
Tour
Guided walking tour, roughly 3 hours, followed by a Grand Canal gondola ride
Region
Venice, Veneto, Italy
Covers
St Mark's Square, St Mark's Basilica, Doge's Palace, a Grand Canal gondola ride
Good for
A full day of walking, with a sit-down gondola break built in

Into St Mark's Square

The green copper dome of San Simeon Piccolo across the Grand Canal, a vaporetto stop and lamppost in the foreground
The green copper dome of San Simeon Piccolo, across the Grand Canal.

We arrived in Venice by train from Florence the day before, and on Day 10 joined a guided walking tour through the city's alleys and canal bridges toward St Mark's Square. Venice is built across 118 small islands linked by roughly 400 bridges, with no roads for cars anywhere in the historic centre — everything moves on foot or by boat, which is part of why the city still looks and functions the way it did centuries ago.

St Mark's Basilica dominates the square, its construction begun in 1063 in the Byzantine style, and its facade covered in close to 8,000 square metres of gold mosaic. Above the main entrance stand four bronze horses — the Horses of Saint Mark — which are actually looted Byzantine treasure, taken from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The originals now sit inside the basilica's museum for preservation; what's outside today is a replica. Next to it, the Doge's Palace served as the seat of Venice's elected head of state, the Doge, for over 700 years, and is connected to the old prisons by the enclosed Bridge of Sighs.

St Mark's Square in the early morning, nearly empty, the basilica and bell tower behind a girl in a pink jacket
St Mark's Square in the early morning, nearly empty before the crowds arrived.

The Marco Polo Noodle Myth

Our guide walked us past the site of Marco Polo's house and told the well-known story that Polo brought noodles back to Italy from China in the 13th century, supposedly inventing pasta as a result. It's a fun story to tell an 8-year-old, but historians generally agree it isn't true: flour-and-water noodles already existed in Italy before Polo returned to Venice in 1295.

A narrow Venice canal with flags on the palazzo walls and the Bridge of Sighs in the distance A narrow canal, with the Bridge of Sighs in the distance.
Our walking tour group following the guide along a narrow Venice alley toward a white theatre facade The site of Marco Polo's house, where our guide told the noodle story.
Family Travel Tip

Local legends like the Marco Polo noodle story stick with kids far more than dates and architecture facts do — ask your guide for a couple, and don't worry if they turn out to be more folklore than fact. That's usually part of the appeal.

A Gondola Ride Down the Grand Canal

Later we took a gondola along the Grand Canal, Venice's main waterway, roughly 3.8 kilometres long and lined with over 170 historic palazzos. Venetian gondolas have been built black by law since a 16th-century sumptuary law aimed at curbing extravagant displays of wealth among the city's nobility, and the hull itself is deliberately asymmetrical — one side is wider than the other — so a single gondolier, rowing from one side only, can keep the boat travelling in a straight line. Each one is still hand-built by a small number of specialist boatyards called squeri, using techniques that haven't changed much in generations.

Family selfie inside a gondola on a Venice canal

Before the gondola, we'd crossed the Grand Canal itself a few times on foot, the water busy with taxis and delivery boats even in December, grand palazzos lining both banks the whole way down toward the lagoon.

A wide view down the Grand Canal, Venice, palazzos lining both banks

A Slow Afternoon

After the gondola ride, we had lunch — simple pasta, which felt appropriately on-theme after the noodle story — and spent the afternoon without a fixed plan, drifting between quiet side canals and small artisan shops away from the main square. We stopped for gelato by the water and let the rest of the afternoon move at whatever pace it wanted to.

Standing beside a carved stone base in Venice's old town A carved stone base in Venice's old town.
Eating pasta at a waterside restaurant in Venice, Christmas decorations overhead Pasta for lunch at a waterside restaurant, Christmas decorations overhead.

Views From the Water

Getting around Venice by vaporetto (the public water bus) means the lagoon itself becomes part of the sightseeing — including passing the Molino Stucky, a former flour mill on the island of Giudecca, its red-brick industrial towers looking almost fortress-like from the water. Built in the 1890s and converted into a hotel in the 2000s, it's one of the more striking things you'll pass without necessarily knowing what it is.

The Molino Stucky, a former flour mill on Giudecca island, seen from the water

Venice After Dark

The Grand Canal at night, the green-domed San Simeon Piccolo church lit up, vaporetti and boats glowing on the water
The Grand Canal at night, the green dome lit up above the water.

By evening, the canals were reflecting streetlight instead of daylight, and the crowds around St Mark's had thinned out considerably — worth timing a return visit to the square for, if you can manage it. After dark the city changes: quieter, and easier to hear the water against the stone.

Once we left the main routes, the backstreets were much quieter. Along one canal by the Tolentini, orange palazzos stood reflected in the still green water.

A quiet canal lined with orange palazzos, a moored boat and the Fondamenta dei Tolentini sign A quiet canal by the Tolentini, its orange palazzos reflected in the water.
A white marble baroque church facade with statues along the roofline, seen from the Grand Canal A white marble church facade on the Grand Canal, its statues lined along the roof.