While the charms of Piazza San Marco, the seductive curve of the Grand Canal as seen from Ponte Rialto, and the echoes of ‘O sole Mio’ performed by a gondolier, are undeniably timeless, there’s more to Venice, La Serenìssima, than meets the eyes. We’ve explored Venice and the lagoon from every angle: by speedboat and ferry, gondola, vaporetto and foot, and collated this easily digestible collection of our favourite hidden gems in Venice. Just 5 truly secret little places to enjoy the next time you find yourself in Venice.
A Hidden Vineyard on Mazzorbo
Beyond the colorful houses of Burano lies the tranquil island of Mazzorbo, connected to Burano, by a charming wooden footbridge.
Here, colourfully painted houses and a cute tower hide a secret vineyard that grows the lagoon’s historic Dorona grape. Historically, wines made from Dorona were so sought after that the Doge would place a bottle on their tables as a medieval status symbol.
The location is a rare idyll in Venice, with plenty of green space, and walking access to Burano and its small collection of restaurants and bars. To take full advantage of the location (which is a bit of a trek from Venice by Vaporetto, though perfectly manageable if you don’t want to stay the night), we recommend staying in the beautiful Venissa Wine Resort on Mazzorbo. Set in verdant fields full of cherry trees and old vines with tight bunches of golden grapes reflecting the Venetian sun, it’s the best spot to try the legendary Dorona directly from the vineyard. But the hotel’s restaurant has gained a Michelin-star too and the 5 rooms are genuinely lovely with views of the lagoon and the vineyard’s 14th-century belfry.
Il Paradiso Perduto
There are a lot of restaurants in Venice and some of them are extremely good, while others… are not so good. This one though sits somewhere between extremely good and extremely authentic, which means it’s raucous, loud, difficult to get a table in and entirely unstuffy. If you find yourself in the mood for a divine cacio e pepe served to your plate directly from a vast wheel of parmesan by a server who’s done it so many times they can take orders at the neighbouring table as they splash pepper and cheese around in a wonderful calorific whirlwind, without even looking, then you are in the right place. The menus are in Italian, the clientele is a mix of locals, Italian tourists and students (it’s surprisingly cheap) and the food and wine are both perfect for post-exploration indulgence.
The restaurant is conveniently located on a stretch of riverside in Cannaregio (rio della misericordia), which includes the wonderful vinyl-themed cocktail bar Vinile. You can make bookings directly in the restaurant or by phone. But even better, the restaurant is only a short walk away from my favourite hotel in Venice: Madama Garden Retreat (see below).
The address of Il Paradiso Perduto is: della Misericordia, Fondamenta Cannaregio, 2540, 30100 Venezia VE, Italy
A Hidden Garden Hotel in the Heart of Cannaregio
In a creative quarter of Cannaregio there’s a divine little sanctuary—Madama Garden Retreat, set into an idyllic garden, the envy of passers-by. It’s a little hotel, run by a small team and the namesake Madama, with stunning, modernist rooms all enveloped by a garden stuffed with lemon trees and wisteria. Food and drinks are served in the garden, overlooking a canal, and it’s the kind of spot that people catch in the corner of their eye and then wonder how on earth they can get there too.
It’s our favourite hotel in Italy and, as you’ll see on the booking page, has extremely good reviews with a solid 10/10 at the time of writing. Book a room at the Madama Garden Retreat here, or if you’d like to learn more about it, take a look at our review.
A Female Gondolier?
The history of Venice’s gondoliers is vast and complex, protected by the secrecy of the Gondolier guild and shrouded in mystery—a perfect theatre for Venice, so laced, as it is, with romance and performance. Just 425 gondolier licenses are awarded by the city, often passed down from father to son, keeping it firmly within Venetian families … but women aren’t allowed. At least, they weren’t allowed, until Giorgia Boscolo, who took a newly established course to win the right to captain a gondola, became the first, and only official, female gondoliera in 2010 — the first (and still only) woman to officially helm a gondola in 900 years.
So if you see Giorgia Boscolo vying for passengers around the canals or near Hotel Bella Venezia in Saint Marco’s, where she seems to pop up a lot, take a trip, you’ll be in a minuscule percentage of people who have ever had the pleasure of an official ride with Venice’s only gondoliera.
Chioggia, Veneto’s Other Venice
There are a lot of other Venices. But mostly they’re just cities with canals: Annecy, the Venice of the Alps, Amsterdam, London’s Little Venice etc. But they don’t look like Venice, even Trieste, often touted as a modern Venice, doesn’t have the same charms. But did you know that Venice has a little sister? It’s a charming fishing village an hour along the Lagoon called Chioggia, that has the same aesthetic beauty as Venice, with none of the crowds. In Chioggia, you’ll find arched bridges over emerald canals, ornate windows and antique Campanile, as well as unobscured lagoon views. But this little fishing village, that looks like a petite, faded little sister to big Venice just 20km away, remains relatively unknown.
Arrive via the lagoon and you’ll see the ornate Vigo Bridge crossing Canal Vena as an entrance to Chiesa di Santa Croce, quickly followed by the red brick Ponte Caneva, which appears as though plucked from Venice’s Dorsoduro. But perhaps best of all is the relative lack of people. Pair this with the fish markets and trawlers that bring the seafood to town (they supply Venice too) for local specialities, like sarde in saor and Baccalà mantecato, served al fresco besides the canals, and you have all the ingredients for a Venice in miniature, with just enough Veneto charm to make it feel like Venice proper, and a good helping of industrial grit that makes it feel less like a tourist city and more like a real town.
There are several routes to Chioggia from Venice, but the easiest is the direct Vaporetto to and from Lido in the high season (otherwise it’s a Vaporetto and a bus).
We recommend staying at least a night to enjoy the quiet, atmospheric evenings on the pitch black lagoon. We stayed at the Hotel Grande Italia, a surprisingly pretty four-star hotel with unbeatable lagoon views, and well-appointed, modern rooms. For more information and to book a room in Chioggia’s Hotel Grande Italia hotel, take a look here.
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