Your property in Venice
Glamour, romance and luxury can be found in every property in Venice, a truly unmatched city.
The City of Water caters to everyone, with spacious apartments and their panoramic terraces on offer alongside waterside villas, whose entrance halls open directly out onto moorings on the Grand Canal.
Away from the bustling centre, stunning apartments in remarkable redevelopment projects are available in places such as Palestrina island or the glass-making island of Murano.
Inside Venice
Building a city on a lagoon would be a monumental task even for modern architects but Venice, a city with an extremely rich history, has stood for centuries.
The city does grandeur, with its 50 palazzi lining the Grand Canal, but also offers toned-down, quaint, narrow backstreets whose churches, galleries and restaurants beg to be explored.
Venice is a truly creative force, having forged fashions that have since gone global. But besides clothes, the city is an agenda-setting gastronomic hub thanks to its distinctive produce and seafood, gets people talking with cutting-edge art in the Punta della Dogana, and is even emerging as a competitor against Silicon Valley’s tech giants.
Landscape
Venice is built on more than 100 small islands, making it navigable only via boat on its numerous canals, or on foot once on terra firma.
The flat city offers a plethora of beaches but also provides a taste of wilderness in places such as the WWF Oasi Dunes degli Alberoni, a pine forest that calls itself home to flora and fauna as diverse as wild flowers through to sea turtles.
The Dolomites mountains in the eastern section of the northern Italian Alps can be seen from Venice, with the area a popular day trip from the city.
Education
For those relocating to Venice with young families, the city has the International School of Venice, in the Mestre area, while the H-Farm International School of Treviso is in Roncade, just over half an hour away by car from Venice.
And the city’s Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, a humanities-orientated institution, is located on the banks of the Grand Canal in a Gothic palace.
Activities and Entertainment
With striking architecture at every turn, including the 9th Century Basilica di San Marco and the Gothic Palazzo Ducale, simply wandering the street of Venice without any particular purpose is a fantastic way to pass the time.
While the city’s gondolas are essential for getting around, they also provide an unforgettable way to experience the city’s true opulence, including passing under the plethora of magnificent bridges, including 16th Century Ponte di Rialto.
Within Venice, the islands of Murano, which has been a historic glass-making tradition, and Burano, with its pastel-coloured houses in its tiny fishing villages, are a truly exceptional experience, while further afield in the wider Veneto region, small towns such as Soave echo the quintessential Italian countryside that most believe is reserved only for Tuscany.
Art and Culture
Venice is an undeniable arty treasure trove, with galleries such as the Gallerie dell’Accademia hosting masterpieces by Gentile Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio and Giorgione, while the Peggy Guggenheim Collection includes pieces by Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí.
Music and theatre also takes centre stage, with remarkable venues such as La Fenice and smaller, exclusive ones such as Palazetto Bru Zane, putting on classical music concerts and operas, while museums and galleries capture everything from the city’s sea-faring past to its love of design and photography.
Markets are a dominant feature of Venetian life, with the Mercato della Prigione Femminile featuring organic produce, and the centuries-old Rialto Market displaying a huge range of produce including fruit, vegetables and fish, while big celebrations such as Regata Storica, which centres around a historic procession, and Vogalonga, a 32-kilometre long row beginning at the Palazzo Ducale, attract plenty of spectators.
Food and Drink
Seafood graces most of the classic Venetian dishes, with inspiration also coming from the mountains and fertile valleys of the wider Veneto region.
Venice has plenty of excellent independent restaurants serving up local specialities, such as fish-based plates including bigoli in salsa (pasta in anchovy sauce), risotto al nero di seppia (risotto cooked in cuttlefish ink), and baccalà mantecato (dried fish served with polenta).
Risottos, meat dishes such as duck, and vegetarian recipes including casunziei (beetroot-filled pasta) are also popular, with high-end restaurants such as the two Michelin-starred Glam Enrico Bartolini putting a creative spin on produce from Rialto market, while the city’s bacari, its traditional wine bars, are famous for their small tapas-style plates called cicheti.
The Veneto region is a large wine-producer, making everything from Valpolicella, Soave and Prosecco, and is also home to the IGT Pinot Grigio, meaning a high-quality product particular to the area.
Accessibility
Venice is well-connected by air, with the Venice Marco Polo Airport just on the outskirts of the city and offering domestic and international flights. The short trip into the city centre can be made by road or boat.
Italy’s high-speed train network serves both the Mestre and Venezia Santa Lucia stations in the city, linking it to Turin, Milan, Padua, Florence, Rome and Salerno among others.
Some of the country’s major roads also skirt the city, making it easy to drive to nearby cities such as Padua, Bologna and Milan to the west, while the border of Slovenia is less than two hours away.