I wrote earlier:

We do think it is over rated. The problem is us-tourists and the attendant problems hordes of tourist bring.

Yikes I omitted the word 'not" a dangerous writing habit of mine, I cannot conquer.


I do not think Venice is over rated. There are other cities with canals, but none have the grandeur of Venice.

Tsss .. Bruges and Gent.
Simply because they have belgian beer. ;-)

Ack wrote, "Is sex overrated?"

"Nothing is so overrated as sex, and so underrated as a good bowel movement." -- GB Shaw

Just read Ruskin and Henry James. They saw more than most of us, and you haven't got to deal with the crowds. I found it beautiful, but that was before you had to reserve admission to St Mark's.

Tsss .. Bruges and Gent.

Been to both, liked both, Gent better but the canals simply do not compare and you can always import beer. Not one of Italy's strengths.

VENICE is Magical! One of the few places that I would love to visit again; even that I have not had a chance to visit all the wonderful places on the planet yet!

But I had also heard that August may not be the best time to visit Venice - due to heat, crowd & the strong smell ..

I saw that someone had recommended Lake Como to you...
We had stopped by Lake Como from our trip from Switzerland, and Milan. Love Lake Como - beautiful scenery!

But Venice has more facets: history, culture, unique setting, ...than just beautiful scenery. I think that is what makes VENICE unique!

To me, visiting Venice this time on your trip or not- depending on when would be your next chance to visit VENICE?

Enjoy your trip! Have fun!

Here is my experience. I first went on a day trip from Florence. I found this a big mistake. For me as a day trip it was too long for only a few hours. I went right at carnival in March so it was jam packed with wall to wall people. I had pizza that was so hard I swore it was a brick. I liked seeing the people dressed in costumes. So much so, that I said one day I would go back when it was less crowded.

I went back a few years later in November and enjoyed it so much more. The food was better. It was less crowded and I fell in love with the place. I liked being there at night when things were more quiet. I liked just walking around. It's been a while but I am going back this September. I am not sure how the crowds will be.

I found a few days enough and not overrated or at least not yet. You can find good food by not eating around the tourist sights. It did smell strange but it reminded me of the beach I went to when I was small. We used to pass by a marshy area and it smelled the same. If your heart is not into going then don't go. Don't force yourself into it. Maybe if you can, consider visiting at another time of year.

I had researched it so much that I actually thought I could feel what it would be like arriving by boat. What a mistake. I have learned from that trip not to do so much planning. even though I still plan every day. I had placed it with so much higher expectations. It was nicer when we didn't go to the tourist spot for dinner, even though we still found the food to be lacking.. for Italy!! I was so surprised. Best meal in a small funky spot bright lights and a tv on...all of my no dos!! but the meal was fabulous. I would go back. .. I think we were in May. Try to go off the beaten path.

Of course it's not over-rated. Venice's architecture and townscape are unique and outstanding: its accessible art collections among the world's finest.

If by culture, though, you mean the performing arts like music or theatre: no-one's ever claimed Venice has anything worthwhile to offer. It's a tenth-rate provincial desert as far as that kind of culture's concerned.

If by culture you mean "what do ordinary Venetians do all day": the answer is "exploit tourists." 800 years ago they used to trade and sack foreign cities as well: but they've never done much else. They're been globally infamous for ripping tourists off for centuries, and their obsession with it isn't remotely over-rated. They lead the world.

Unlike other arty large towns (Florence, say, or Oxford) there's no other life to Venice but the monumental buildings tourists come to gawp at and extracting cash from them. The food ranges from over-priced crap to over-priced mediocrity.

The crowds are claimed to be dreadful at times. Actually, they can easily be escaped by just walking a few hundred yards from where they hang out. The total population of Venice, including tourists, on the busiest day of the tourist season is about the same as the number of people visiting London's South Kensington museums on the same day - and far less than it would have been three centuries ago, when the place was a real city.

Venice's problem isn't that it's overcrowded (by the standards of any real city it absolutely isn't) but that its tourists all stand in the same place - almost all utterly gormlessly.

Venice has, by any sensible standards, improved massively over the past 50 years. It's cleaner, less smelly, the standards of art conservation have improved by leaps and bounds and far more of its glories are actually open. Tourists have to share it with more other tourists if they lack the gumption to walk away. But walk half a mile to a back canal and you rapidly realise what all the fuss is about.

And for all the inanity about Disneyland: Venice is free, and unfailingly beautiful. And even Venice's dreadful food is at least edible.

It tends to get extremely warm and humid in August.Very crowded with winding queues to practically every place of attraction.Watch your step as you could step on a dropped gelato or someone could smear you with it,by accident of course.

Staying 'in Venice '? Once was good enough. The second time it was Lido.Calmer.

Venice is still beautiful.

Obviously Flanner has never explored the other things happening in Venice, such as the Biennales plural (art and architecture), the cultural activities not driven by endless Vivaldi repetition, modern galleries like the Tre Ochi, displays at the Fortuny.

Fortunately few short term visitors visit these venues, which showcase great works.

Venice has a lot of great restaurants. Maybe 20 years ago there weren't too many good ones, but that has certainly changed.

I am in Venice now ending a two week stay and I was here for two weeks last month. I had great meals at La Columbina, Ai Promessi Sposi (I think this is my current favorite), La Cantina, and two really fantastic experiences at Local, a new place opened by a brother and sister who grew up in the Hotel Wildner. Local is not cheap but it is very very good and they are sourcing most food locally (hence the name.)

http://www.ristorantelocal.com/

Also hit a lot of old standbys like Taverna San Trovaso, Osteria da Alberto, La Zucca, Casa Mia... all good. And there are new wine bars popping up all over the place. Also, a lot of new tours that do bacaro crawls.

Tourism is down here - everyone is talking about it. It has not been terribly crowded except for the Rialto bridge which is under construction and truly awful to get across. Vaporettos are still uncomfortably crowded. But the Biennale was pretty empty on Sunday when I went and even Piazza San Marco has not been as busy as usual.

Can say what the end of August will be like though. All I can say is, if you come to Venice and do your research you can have some very fine meals.

I've been going to Italy since the 80s, but first went to Venice in Spring 2009. I was curious so I went. Plus, my two, close friends live 30 minutes away by train. In the spring, it didn't have the crowds that I've heard that it can have in the summer and we went there twice in a week. However, when I was in Italy, last summer staying with the same friends, I had no desire to go back to Venice and be in the heat and summer crowds. They were happy that I didn't want to go.

If I were to go there again, it would be in the spring although it was very hot the days that we went in the spring. As for whether or not Venice is worth it, that's a total individual thing. I wasn't all in awe of it as some friends, back home, had been and are. There are other places in Italy that I like better. If you go in the summer, then as some have mentioned up thread, you can stay in areas that aren't in the heart of the crowds.

Happy Travels!

<i><font color=#555555>"Maybe 20 years ago there weren't too many good ones, but that has certainly changed."</font></i>

1992, more than 20 years ago, saw the birth of the Associazione dei Ristoranti della Buona Accoglienza. There were fifteen restaurants that made the list in 1992. Today, there are thirteen.

Anyone who follows Teodolinda Venezia knows about the dramatic decline of Venetian-owned establishments in Venice. The number was quite high 20 years ago.

Yes, Venice changes. If you do some research, you can find some really delicious food there. But, if you're the lazy type and not particularly good at planning or navigation, you can seriously fail with food in Venice.

<i><font color=#555555>"Actually, they (the crowds) can easily be escaped by just walking a few hundred yards from where they hang out."</font></i>

Typically, <b>they</b> "hang out" at vital locations: Piazzale Roma, Ferrovia, Rio Terà Lista di Spagna, Ponte delle Guglie, Rio Terà San Leonardo, Rio Terà de la Maddalena, Strada Nova, Rialto, Accademia, Mercerie, San Marco, and Riva degli Schiavoni. Escaping them is not always easy, especially if you have luggage and are trying to enter and exit the city, or if you're trying to find your lodging or that fabulous restaurant you found in your research, or if you need to take a vaporetto, anywhere, in any direction.

<i><font color=#555555>"They're been globally infamous for ripping tourists off for centuries, and their obsession with it isn't remotely over-rated. They lead the world."</font></i>

Britain is far more expensive than Venice, so I guess it takes a rip-off artist to recognize another one. Venice is a small town by any standard, overwhelmed by massive amounts of daily visitors. Every little thing needed to live life for everyone, including the tourists, must be delivered by boat. Tourism is its leading industry. Inevitably, some tourists are going to object to the cost of visiting and accuse the place of rip-off.

<i><font color=#555555>"If by culture, though, you mean the performing arts like music or theatre: no-one's ever claimed Venice has anything worthwhile to offer."</font></i>

Venice is home to many fabulous stars of the performing arts who love to work there when there is work. I'm proud to call several of them friends. Their talents are superior. Some internet trolls have mediocre taste and never stay long enough to discover pure beauty.

<i><font color=#555555>"Venice has, by any sensible standards, improved massively over the past 50 years."</font></i>

In some ways it has. In other ways it hasn't. Some struggles are permanent.

<i><font color=#555555>"even Venice's dreadful food is at least edible"</font></i>

Venice's dreadful food is most definitely NOT edible.

<i><font color=#555555>"It tends to get extremely warm and humid in August."</font></i>

High heat and high humidity have seen record numbers in the last decade. Some places offer good air conditioning, better than ever, but the breakdown rate during heat waves is a constant problem. Traditionally, many Italians take vacation in August. Many famous businesses in Venice, including restaurants, are closed during some portion of August. August may be the least desirable month of the year to visit Venice. The first two weeks of September are increasingly becoming less desirable.

<i> Going to some place beautiful in high season obviously means flocks of tourists. It will be the case in San gimignano Firenze etc. </i>

It will also be very crowded in Como. The Cinque Terre is impossibly crowded most of the year. I've heard that Camogli and Levanto, on the Riviera, are both beautiful and uncrowded, but I've never been to either.

No, but overpriced. (In response to your original question)

Pay. Then forget the fact you have paid, and quite how much, then just enjoy. It is still worth it.

All I can say is that the situation in Venice (overcrowded, loss of local population) will only get worse in the future, so I'd go while you can see what you can see. The heat nearly killed me last July; we were there mid-August twice and did pretty well. Weather IS weather, after all. There are no guarantees.

Venice is a unique city with a unique history and a unique culture (it really was its own county for centuries). As others have said, if you do some homework, you can make your visit work darn well, and YOU will able to see the real Venice underneath the mass of tourists. This place was the bookend on the Ottoman Empire for eons. You CAN experience why it was named "La Serenissima" (the most serene).
AZ

Venice has a lot wrong with it, the tripper boats, the food, the midday crowds. But not over rated.

Early morning, late evening is a magical time, during the day get out on the water on the vap trips, eat in Chioggia. Don't go in August (never go to Italy in August), avoid restaurants with pictures of food in the window.

I even find old town of Mestre charming (just not the post 1850 bits). Go rowing, take out a canoe.

No, it is not overrated. It is unique and breathtaking which is why it is crowded and has always been. Go now and enjoy before it disappears !

A place that is way overrated is Barcelona. Visit it to check it off your list but don't expect much.

This is all YMMV stuff. I spent several days in Barcelona last year and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Of course, I enjoyed it more than I had on a previous trip because I was staying in the Eixample. Location, location... My last visit to Venice I stayed all the way over on Sant'Elena. It was extremely quiet, although convenient for the Biennale.