Venice in three days is enough to cover the main historic centre, one lagoon island and experience the city beyond peak hours. 118 islands, 400 bridges, 170 canals — no cars, no engine noise. The fundamental rule is to sleep in the city: Venice at dawn is a completely different city from the one at 11:00. From Milan 2h 30' by train (Frecciarossa €25-50), from Rome 3h 45' (€45-90), from Florence 2h (€25-45). Marco Polo airport: Alilaguna vaporetto €15 (75 min) or private water taxi €35 (30 min). The ACTV vaporetto (€9.50 single, €25 24h, €65 72h) is the only public transport on the Grand Canal.
Day 1 — San Marco, Palazzo Ducale and Dorsoduro
Basilica di San Marco before 9:00 (free, minimal queue) — 8,000 sqm of golden mosaics from the 9th-13th centuries, Pala d'Oro (€2 extra), original bronze horses in the internal museum. Palazzo Ducale (€25, book online) — the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, Bridge of Sighs, the prisons. Afternoon in Dorsoduro: Gallerie dell'Accademia (€15, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto), Peggy Guggenheim Museum (€18, modern art with Grand Canal terrace), Osteria Enoteca Ai Artisti for evening cicchetti.
Day 2 — Cannaregio and Rialto
Cannaregio is the most authentic neighbourhood — the Jewish Ghetto (1516, Europe's oldest, Jewish Museum €10), the Fondamenta della Misericordia and Ormesini with the city's best bacari. The Rialto market (Pescaria, Tuesday-Saturday 7:30-12:00) is Venice's most authentic culinary scene. Mandatory cicchetti: sarde in saor (vinegar, raisins, pine nuts), baccalà mantecato (cod whipped with oil on polenta), folpetti (boiled baby octopus). The gondola (€80, 30 min, official rate) is done in the evening for best light.
Day 3 — Lagoon: Burano and Murano
Vaporetto line 12 from Fondamente Nove. Murano (7 min): visitable glassblowing furnaces (Barovier & Toso, founded 1295), Glass Museum (€10). Burano (40 min from Venice): the coloured houses (each family had their colour to identify the boat from the sea in fog), the Lace Museum (€5). Return via Torcello (10 min from Burano): the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (7th-11th century, €5) with the Last Judgement mosaics — rarely crowded.
Practical tips
Arrive at Piazza San Marco before 9:00 — after 10:00 it is almost unmanageable in summer
Wheeled luggage does not work — 400 bridges with steps. Bring backpacks
Cicchetti in Cannaregio cost a third of San Marco restaurants — and they are better
Torcello is almost always empty — the Last Judgement mosaics are among Italy's most important
