Winter chill-out ... the Grand Canal seen from the Rialto Bridge.Credit: iStock
Venice is absurd, surreal, something Salvador Dali might have dreamt up; a stunningly improbable settlement created more than 1500 years ago in a malarial tidal lagoon on top of many millions of timber piles driven deep into the seabed; a pastel city built on water, sighing with bridges and veined with canals where every corner reveals yet another impossibly picturesque view.
Venice shouldn't exist. It is both beautiful and, somehow in a world of constant change, timeless. There is, in the Louvre in Paris, a painting by Venetian painter Canaletto of the famous Rialto Bridge which, given a little latitude for changing dress sense, could have been painted yesterday.
So, there you have it: Venice is its own worst enemy.
Too accessible, too easily navigated and, well, just too darn exquisite for its own good – so inundated by the hated, feted tourist that for some (well, me) any enjoyment of its attractions is muted by the sea of people under which it is regularly submerged.
Some 15 million people visit Venice each year. It averages out to something like 50,000 a day but most of them are there during the warmer spring and summer months. My first visit there, 25 years ago, consisted of looking at the outside of the Doge's pale pink-and-white chessboard palace and its next-door neighbour, the treasure heap of the Basilica di San Marco, so off-putting were the lines of people queuing to get in.
This time it was going to be different; this time it was the dead of winter, deep in the dark downtime between new year and the 10-day masked madness of Carnivale, the city-wide costume ball that leads up to Shrove Tuesday each year. And this, as we discovered, is the perfect time to visit. Yes, it might be colder than an Eskimo on his outdoor dunny but the streets are empty of any but the hardiest of tourists, the prices of accommodation are lower than at any other time of the year and there are no queues.
The cold can be daunting, especially on "outside" quaysides such as the Fondamenta Nuove, which has no protection from the winter winds whipping off the lagoon – but it's nothing that a woolly hat, gloves and some thermals won't cure.
This is also the time when many of the hotels schedule renovations or just take the time to tart themselves up in preparation for the onslaught to come. Friends from the south of France arrived in Venice in January a few years ago and were shocked to find themselves in one of the better rooms of a hotel not far from the Rialto Bridge because the other rooms were being refurbished. Even more shocking was the low price they paid – "a five-star hotel for two-star prices".
But while a hotel is a good bet for a short stay we were looking for something longer – 10 days – and found a two-bedroom apartment in the old working-class district of Cannaregio. Prices of apartments such as this can skyrocket during the summer months but become much more manageable in the quieter, colder months.
They also enable you to cook at home rather than pay the extortionate prices charged by some of the restaurants and cafes – a tactic that drastically reduces wear on the wallet. For instance, an espresso coffee at the (admittedly) beautiful Caffe Florian in St Mark's Square will set you back €6 ($9.70); want milk with that? €8.50, thanks. Want food, too? Get a bank loan, bud.
Anyway, a turn around the supermercato with the locals often reveals more about a place and its people than all the overpriced bistros put together. Though if you do decide to splash out then getting a table at that restaurant below the Rialto will, at this time of year, be as easy as just turning up.
First you have to get there, though, and one of the best tips we got was not to take the train in to the city from Marco Polo airport. A short walk from the arrivals hall is a jetty where a €12 one-way ticket will get you a seat on an Alilaguna waterbus.
Venice is a water city made up of more than 100 man-made islands so what better way to arrive than across the lagoon by boat? And it is spectacular; especially if you are lucky enough to arrive on a bright day with a cold, blue cloudless sky.
The boat stops at various islands on the way, including the cemetery of St Michele – the "island of the dead" where ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky and Ezra Pound are buried – before making its way anti-clockwise around the "mainland". This is where a map of Venice comes in handy – unless you are with a tour group staying at a hotel that will manage your luggage you will be hefting your bags up and down one of the city's 400 bridges. Knowing in advance where to get off the boat will keep that to a minimum.
One thing: don't expect help with your luggage from anyone. Even little old fur-clad Venetian ladies who cart their goodies home in seemingly ubiquitous shopping trolleys are left to huff and puff their way over the bridges. At first it seems ungallant not to help but if you did you'd never get anywhere as the place is littered with trolleys and little old ladies.
Many of these same little old ladies later appear sporting toy dogs in coats – we saw one wearing its very own leather bomber jacket. These dogs then defecate indiscriminately in the streets – a downside that Venice shares with Paris but which the local authorities are trying to combat with a public education campaign. "Tieni pulita la citta! [Stop polluting the city!]," say the posters over a drawing of a dog. It's not really working so watch your step.
The Cannaregio area, where our smallish but perfectly formed apartment (henceforth known as the Kylie Minogue suite) is situated, is most definitely not on your average tourist's wish list. This old working-class district includes the main railway station and the Jewish quarter where the word "ghetto" was coined. Like most places in Venice, however, it's only a short stroll from anywhere else. Indeed, you can walk across Venice from west to east in an hour or so and the major sights are no more than 15-20 minutes from each other.
If, like us, you arrive after a long international flight here's another tip: don't fight the jetlag. Take advantage of it and you will see a side of Venice that few others experience. We were often to be found taking photographs at 5.30am and tip-toeing alone through one of the year's 200 or more acqua alta (high tides) in a partially flooded St Mark's Square.
If you do arrive from somewhere closer then it's really worth setting an early alarm as the cold winter mornings are often fog-shrouded and it's then, as the city comes slowly to life, that the labyrinthine streets and alleyways give up their best ghosts. Especially when the cold, dark waters of the lagoon conjure up grey dawn mists that creep through the smaller canals and clutch at Venice's innards.
This isn't one of those stories that tells you what to do and where to go – the joy of holidaying in Venice at this time of year is that it's open to you in a manner that it would never be in July or August.
The water bus (vaporetto) will not be a suffocating crush of elbows and cameras and your heart will not drop at the sheer size of the queues to get into the Basilica – there are none. Nor will pressure of visitor numbers building up behind stunt your enjoyment of the Hieronymus Bosch originals in the Doge's Palace or Cosme Tura's freakily modernist Pieta from 1460 in the Correr Museum (both of which you just strolled into, as we did, without a moment's wait).
Take also a moment in the Correr to study the painting of bull baiting in the Campo San Polo; packed with detail and animals and people, there's a heart-warming Where's Wally moment when you discover a dog leaving a "deposit" in the middle of the campo. Some things really do never change.
The average temperature for Venice in January is 2 degrees, with a high of 6 degrees and a low of minus 1 degree but an added bonus is that the average rainfall in January is 58 centimetres which, according to official figures, is the third lowest in the year. Only in December and February is it less (at 53cm).
Indeed, the highest rainfall months are May, June, July and August (68cm, 76cm, 63cm and 83cm respectively). Which means not only will you queue more then but you're more likely to do it in the rain.
Oh, and on our last, icy day as we took a final turn around the quiet back streets of Cannaregio before boarding the overnight train taking us on to Paris, it started to snow. And you won't get that in July.
FAST FACTS
Emirates has a fare to Venice, non-stop from Dubai, for about $1707. Many other carriers will fly into another major European city and then to Venice. Or fly business class to Dubai and back and then economy class to Venice and back for $5166. (Fares are low season return from Melbourne and Sydney, including tax.) Australians do not require a visa but immigration at destination will determine the number of entries and length of stays.
Visit the late Peggy Guggenheim's collection of modern art — Picasso, Chagall, Kandinsky, Magritte, Dali and Pollock — at her home near the Accademia. Bearing in mind the chance of an art overdose in Venice, the Guggenheim collection is small enough to savour without doing yourself a mischief. Take a vaporetto to one or two of the smaller islands. The glass-making island of Murano is a must-see. Check out the public glass artworks that litter squares around the island. Arrange visits further afield in a bunch and buy a three-day vaporetto pass to get around.
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