Venice is one of those places that lives up to every expectation. Any introduction to the place should be by water taxi down the Grand Canal. You don't just look at Venice, you absorb it as you motor past the grand, decaying edifices and towers with the canal lapping at their foundations, the bustle of gondolas and vaporettos, the labyrinthine side canals and scattered piazzas to explore on foot through the maze that makes up Venice.
Truly stunning, but truly exasperating when the big cruise ships unload. Those things disgorge their cargos by the tens of thousands who then clog the place up and proceed to filthy the place up too. Venice is swept clean every morning and the time to get out and about is the morning; pre-crowds and while the place still looks and feels fresh. Once the crowds hit, it's time to visit the islands like Murano and Burano or head off down the alleyways to get lost and explore.
Our chosen stop-over was the Hotel Rialto at the foot of the Ponto Rialto. This is the eye of the storm when it comes to crowds in looney numbers - it's on the Grand Canal, it's next to the iconic bridge of the same name and it's the cross-over point between the two halves of the city. By god, could those crowd numbers get mental! So why stay there? The pluses outnumber the minuses:
A must-do in Venice is to lose yourself in the maze of back alleys and piazzas. Take a map though because you can easily end up walking in circles. There's something to see down every alley and canal. Despite the claims of Venice Of The East (Bangkok) and Little Venice (Mykonos) there's nothing that could come close to the real thing.