Pal Polly writes ..."how can you help about noticing the mobs - the gauntlet from the train station/car and bus dropping off point was elbow to elbow - "...

No point in discouraging people from visiting Venice.

Sure you get stuck in Venice if you take that deathmarch route from the station via Rialto to San Marco, but who says you should? Your own fault - they sell maps, and it is dead easy to pick another route.

The busloads of daytrippers who have to follow a guide take that route, they can't help it, but anyone else has only themselves to blame.

Still, mobs is something different - they are victims, shuffling heel to toe, with Prada and Gucchi and Rolex as their companions in the shop windows - what a horror!

But it's not necessary, you can find your own way, seeing hardly any other tourists, certainly not in quantities that would qualify as "mobs", not until you get to San Marco where all bets are off.

So even if your trip takes place during the height of summer and while all of Europe seems to be on holidays - don't let that stop you, just be smart about it.

Dolly Lammy has hit it on the head - be smart, get a map and get off the main elbow to elbow gauntlet and enjoy a fairly deserted even Venice.

stick like lemmings to the crowd and that's all you will see.

Yes go to Venice whenever you can - it is to me the visual feast of Europe - a trip down the Grand Canal both in day and even better at night is what i'd call Europe's most serene surrealistic sight.

Like anyone else, I can only share my own experiences... I did not find Venice horribly crowded during my two different trips there, both in August. I was not with a tour, but wandered around on my own.

suze - yes you knew how to do like Dolly Lolly advised above - get off the main drag so Venice can be nice even in August - i agree

that said few tourists seem to do that - to wit the mobbing on a few main foot paths simply because they do not know better.