The insider secrets to avoiding Venice's summer crowds
Even at peak visitor periods, the worst excesses can be avoided and you're never more than a bridge away from secluded Venice with its quiet campi (squares), churches concealing luminous Madonnas, handsome Gothic palazzi – and bustling neighbourhood hangouts.
Because there's more to Venice than peerless artistic riches from centuries past: it's also a hive of contemporary activity (not to mention its recent role playing host to the wedding of the century). Beyond the alternating Art and Architecture Biennale shows, which showcase all that's cutting edge internationally, the city's dwindling population works hard to keep contemporary Venice creative, productive and very vibrant.
For further inspiration, explore our guides to the city's best hotels, restaurants, nightlife, shopping, attractions and free things to do.
What's new in Venice this summer
See: Photography exhibition
Le Stanze della Fotografia, on the island of San Giorgio, is hosting the striking, provocative and occasionally shocking works of American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. This major exhibition examines the sensuality of the human body, the beauty of flowers and the dialogue between photography and classical sculpture, and is running from April 10 to November 23.
Relax: Greenery at the Redentore church
Venice's tantalising gardens are mostly behind high walls, in private hands. The Hortus Redemptoris – a glorious hectare of vegetable and herb beds behind Palladio's superb Redentore church on Venice's Giudecca island – has been restored and opened to the public last autumn. It's open from Thursdays to Saturdays, between 10am and 5.30pm.
Discover: Intelligence at the architecture exhibition
Intelligence in various forms – natural, artificial and collective – is the theme of this year's international architecture exhibition, running from May 10 to November 25, from the Biennale organisation. Architects and designers from 66 countries push the bounds of conceptual research in exhibits inside Venice's Arsenale and in the charming national pavilions dotted around the Giardini della Biennale.
How to spend your weekend
Day one: morning
Start the day in Da Bonifacio, a tiny café with a lovely crazy-paving mosaic floor, hidden away behind the Doge's Palace. The coffee's good – ask for the very Venetian macchiatone if you like the idea of a cappuccino with less milk – and it's difficult to resist cakes like the pasta con le mandorle (almond slice).
The wondrous, mosaic-studded interior of Venice's mother church, St Mark's Basilica doesn't open to visitors until 9.30am (2.30pm on Sunday), but anyone is welcome to attend morning mass. Take your pick between the 8am and 10am slots.
On Sundays and feast days, the 10am event is a sung mass in the central nave, and there's nothing like plainsong to bring out the magic of St Mark's. Afterwards, visit the Museum of St Mark's, which affords spectacular views over the piazza; entry is €7.
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Sam Jones As befits the inhabitants of a country where summer temperatures can hit 47.6C (117C), Spaniards have centuries of practice when it comes to drinkable coolers. When the heat hits, they will often reach for a small, extremely cold beer, a serving of chilled gazpacho, a slushy granizado, or decant a coffee into a glass full of ice to make a refreshing iced coffee. In the eastern region of Valencia, however, people often cool down with a long, cold and sweet glass of horchata de chufa. Chufa, known in English as tiger nut, is the edible tuber of a plant in the sedge family that was introduced to the peninsula during the long period of Islamic rule, and which now has EU protected designation of origin status in Valencia. According to folk legend, horchata takes its name from a remark by King Jaime I of Aragón (1208-1276) when he was offered a refreshing drink by a young woman. Inquiring what he was drinking, he was told it was the milk of the tiger nut. Incredulous, he is said to have replied, '¡Aixo no es llet, aixo es or xata!' ('This isn't milk – it's gold, girl!'). A more prosaic (and likely) explanation is that horchata is derived from hordeata, the Latin world for barley-based drinks. The drink is prepared by soaking, washing and grinding tiger nuts and then mixing them with water and sugar. The resulting horchata, served cold, is sweet and nutty, and can be found in cafes and supermarkets well beyond the horchaterías of its native Valencia. Spain's colonial expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries has ensured that versions of the drink can be found across its former empire, from Mexico to parts of Central and South America. Drinks made from tiger nut are also popular in parts of west Africa. Horchata's proponents – not least the Valencian tiger nut regulatory council – say it is naturally free of gluten, lactose and caffeine, and contains sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamins C and E. Helena Smith For nigh on 70 summers, on the squares and pavements of Greek cities large and small, it is the frappé that people have sipped when temperatures rise. In my experience, this accidental invention of instant coffee, water and ice – shaken but never stirred – is a sure sign that summer has arrived. For many, the frappe, or frapogalo if mixed with milk, is as much about sustenance as relaxation; a drink whose zingy taste and frothy top (for sugar is optional) are associated as much with cooling off as languid conversation. That the frappe may have come about by a twist of fate has only added to its allure. Origin stories, though varied in the retelling, agree that had it not been for Dimitris Vakondios, a Nescafé sales rep attending the World Trade Fair exhibition in Thessaloniki in 1957, the drink may never have been concocted. Legend has it that Vakondios inadvertently created it when, unable to find a utensil to heat up his Nescafé, he reached for a shaker that had until then been used to produce Nesquik chocolate shakes. The story goes that he added instant coffee granules, water and ice and shook vigorously before pouring the foamy contents into a glass. Whether sugar was thrown in remains open to debate. To this day, its addition is optional, but if you ask me, downing it authentic and strong gives by far the best frappé kick.
