Explore The Floating City’s unseen corners with Monocle’s guide to Venice

The fact that all emergency services in Venice travel on water is something that still fills me with child-like enthusiasm. Ambulances, firefighters and carabinieri speed around on motorboats emblazoned with insignia. These vessels are my first memory of the city. When visiting as a child, having made the journey from my hometown of Turin, I was in awe of the novelty – to me, they looked like irresistible Playmobil toys. Little did I know that, more than 20 years later, I would be back in the city to report on their activities and the logistical challenges they face for a Monocle story that involved zooming across the lagoon on a police boat (not handcuffed in the back, fortunately).

Every story that has taken me back to Venice over the years shares that same sense of wonder – from observing the glass-blowers in Murano reinventing a millennia-old craft to hopping across the vintage bagni on the Lido, which appear straight out of a mid-century postcard. Perhaps because of the city’s pull on visitors worldwide, Italians often have a disenchanted view on it: we like to show that we are keenly aware of the city’s issues and are attuned to its reality. 

And yet, no matter how level-headed I have tried to be, I have always fallen for it. Something shifts the moment you walk out of Marco Polo airport, down to the taxis and vaporetto piers, and smell the salty air of the lagoon: how can you not be excited about a city built on water?

Still, what makes Venice so inviting is that despite the much-discussed spectre of overtourism, it remains a functioning city where you can still catch glimpses of the everyday. Almost a decade ago, when working on the Venice installment of The Monocle Travel Guide Series, the team and I based ourselves in the city for a few weeks, during a freezing January before Carnival started. It was then that I really came to understand Venetian rhythms as I waited for the frenzy of the day to give way to the quiet of the evening, when a different kind of life re-emerged in the bacari. 

I was in charge of the guide’s retail chapter, and hunting for independent workshops took me to the residential sestieri – since then, I tend to spend most of my time here in Cannaregio, Castello or Dorsoduro. Speaking to the districts’ artisans and designers gave me a clear picture of their struggles but I also witnessed an enduring sense of pride and determination. Nevermind us visitors who idealise: Venetians are the people who are most enamoured by this splendid city.

Many of the hotels, restaurants, bars, cafés and shops that I discovered on my explorations then form the backbone of our online Venice guide – proof that businesses with soul can survive here. I have accrued the rest over the years during visits to the Art and Architecture Biennale, when having a sharp dinner-booking game can open new doors. 

Arguably, it’s the job of any good travel guide to help readers steer clear of over-hyped locales, and that role is even more important when it comes to Venice. So our list of recommendations invites you to veer off into quiet, narrow calli and discover what still makes this such a seductive city. Because despite its traditions and past riches, Venice has become an edgy centre of contemporary art and design – somewhere young generations still find inspiration and purpose. 

Read next: The Monocle City Guide to Venice, featuring the best hotels, restaurants and retail spots