Venice without the hordes (From Dorset Society)

Venice without the hordes

1:00am Sunday 1st November 2009

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If Venice ever sank into its lagoon, the world-wide tourist industry might never recover. Hundreds of thousands of visitors fill every crevice of this floating architectural wonder every year with their bum-bags and dodgy outfits.

But you don’t have to become part of the tourist circus if you choose to visit.

All you need is a proper guidebook, lots of patience and a pair of blinkers to achieve your sought-after romantic break.

Having reached Venice by means of a leisurely two-day train journey from London via Paris and Zurich – a highly-recommended buffer between the real world and your holiday time – my partner and I had plenty of time to absorb our Time Out guide to the northern Italian city.

Determined to avoid extortionately-priced water taxis, we jumped on the Vaporetto (water bus) outside the train station and headed down the Grand Canal.

While this service offers the most direct route through Venice and wonderful views of the city, you have to accept the boat's lurching motion and industrial-level shudders as part of the fun Joining the crowds at the city's main harbour, we bounced our wheelie suitcases over the trachyte and sandstone pavements, passing naff restaurants, lanky teenagers and tacky carnival masks as we passed through the world's most famous piazza – St Mark’s Square.

The crowds who “infest the Piazza... pursue you along the Riva... hang about the bridges” – as first described by Henry James in 1881 – haven’t thinned out.

This formerly isolated playground for rich merchants, aristocrats and artists, who loved nothing better than a masked ball or five, has become ‘Venice Land’, complete with the gondola rides.

Once inside the Ca’ dei Conti hotel, a lush converted 17th-century aristocratic town house, we sank onto our bed’s embroidered covers, comforted by this luxury after the shock of the city.

That night we planned to get away from all the uninvited guests intent on spoiling our holiday, and walk as far away from St Mark’s Square as you can on an island that’s three miles long and two miles wide.

We were looking for the city that inspired the painters Carpaccio and Bellini, not the sliced meat and cocktail version fed to tourists.

Walking out along the harbour, past huge luxury yachts towards the tranquil, woody area of Sant’ Elena, we found a local restaurant, Al Diporto (Sant 'Elena 25, calle Cengio, tel: 041 528 5978).

Sitting with many Italian families in one of the open streets of the Castello district, we feasted on freshly-caught sea bass, prosecco and polenta (cooked cornmeal, a Venetian speciality).

Wandering back along the shoreline, watching the lights flickering on the adjacent island of Giudecca, we slipped past the crowds – who seemingly wished to stand in St Mark's Square for their entire stay – and got back to our hotel, smug with holiday victory.

Having proved it was possible to get away, we spent the rest of our days trying to lose everyone else, or to simply get lost. And surprisingly, we discovered that most of Venice is free from tourists.

An easy way to make an instant escape is to catch a boat to one of the neighbouring islands. La Giudecca, to the south of Venice, is a gondola-shaped strand of eight islands. With a wonderful view of the Venetian skyline, it is the perfect place to watch the sun go down.

On advice from ‘those in the know’, we headed for the Cipriani restaurant, in search of a taste of Venice's legendary luxury and glamour.

This city has always attracted or spawned famous residents, from Titian and Vivaldi to hard-drinking writers Ernest Hemmingway, Orson Welles and Truman Capote, and more recently Georgio Armani and Elton John.

Cipriani encapsulates that history – and can even lay claim to inventing the Bellini cocktail back in 1931, when Giuseppe Cipriani set up Harry's Bar on the mainland.

We were seated, naturally, a table away from Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and his 23-year-old model girlfriend Kemp Muhl.

Drinking prosecco and swallowing wafer-thin pieces of carpaccio (sliced raw beef – another Cipriani invention), we weren’t entirely sure which view was the more fabulous – the sight of the dome of St Mark’s, or Yoko’s profile.

Buoyed by that glamorous meal, I decided next day that taking a gondola ride in Venice was important. Booking online with Viator (viator.com) we went for broke with the all-singing, all-accordion-playing version.

Hilarious, genuinely romantic and definitely good for your ego, we grinned like idiots and watched other tourists look jealously on as our singer rolled out all the hits on the 35 minutes trip.

Our last day was spent standing in queues and hurriedly taking in a few sights, before looking for a traditional Italian restaurant to leave us smelling of olive oil on the boat back to the airport.

After three false starts – some restaurants just don’t open when they say they will – we walked tiredly towards the harbour, thinking that we’d have to make do with sandwiches.

But, in that miraculous way that you simply can't rely on, the Venetian god of tourists brought us to Osteria da Alberto (meetingvenice.it/daalberto).

Sliding past a gaggle of retired Venetian men sipping wine and nibbling antipasti, we found a table at the back of the restaurant.

Empty wine bottles decorated every service, pans hung on the ceiling and strings of garlic, dollies and black-and-white photos decorated the walls.

After a brief look at the menu, we settled on a Venetian classic – red wine and heavenly plates of oily strings of spaghetti flavoured with clams, chillies and garlic. I think I’m in love.

TRAVEL FACTS

Sarah O'Meara travelled to Venice with Railbookers, which offers European short breaks and holidays by train for independent travellers. She stayed one night at the Schweizerhof Hotel in Zurich and three nights at the Ca' dei Conti Hotel in Venice, both B&B, on a 'Venice via the Alps' package from £589 per person, which includes travel by Eurostar and onward to Venice, and return journey by air. All Railbookers packages return to London by BA, but connecting flights can be arranged to Manchester and Edinburgh. Railbookers reservations: 0203 327 0800; railbookers.com.

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