We’ve recently spent two days in Venice on holiday, at the start of a trip which is now taking us around Slovenia for the next ten days. Venice has worked out pretty well; we’ve seen all the major sights like St. Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge. We always knew it would be chock-full of tourists from dawn to dusk, but it really does get incredibly busy around the main attractions. For me, that detracts from the overall experience, but I managed to get out early one morning and see a totally different side of the city. You can spend hours just wandering around the tiny side-streets, and I’d heartily recommend that as a plan of action if you do visit.

It’s also a very expensive city to sleep and eat in, although we found we’d done most of what we wanted to do after a couple of full days.

I’ve certainly felt safe during my time wandering around, including early in the morning when there were very few other people around. I had my camera out a reasonable amount, but didn’t see that as a problem. Apparently pick-pockets are the main issue, but I guess all the usual travel precautions apply to deal with them.

So all in all, a pretty good start to the trip. I’m not a big fan of cities and crowds, so if you’re like me then come to Venice expecting to get the best of it before everyone else has woken up. During the day it may seem overcrowded, over-priced, and overly “tourist-ified”, but if you catch it at the right time it’s a very beautiful and totally unique city.

Edit: Scott Kelby has just published a blog post about shooting in Italy, including a bit about Venice. I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s explained a little more eloquently than I about the prevalence of cliched shots and trying to avoid just taking them all day long. He’s also got a gallery of his Venice shots up, which show his holiday shots are just as great as his work shots! I particularly like the high angles he’s got on the gondolas.