Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

A trip down the Grand Canal is the perfect introduction to Venice, whether you are being chauffered with your loved one by a gondolier, sailing a yacht up it (sadly illegal unless you are filming a Bond film), or just cramming onto the vaporetto from the train station down to St Mark's. The vaporetto, the public transport equivalent of Metro, Tube, or Subway, gives you an unprecedented look at the wonders of Venice's main thoroughfare.

The palazzi you see were designed to present their most ostentatious faces to the canal to impress and overawe their rivals and lessers. As a result they reach heights of splendour such as the Moorish patterning of the Ca'd'Oro, reflecting the Doge's Palace at the canal's end, the rich friezes of the Palazzo Contarini-Polignac, the marble veneer of the Palazzo Dario, and the technicolour Palazzo Salviati.

Due to the demand there are not too many churches—those that do exist are located at the (unfashionable) northern end. However, one of Venice's crowning glories, the church of Santa Maria della Salute, does tip the western bank. The Salute is stunning to view, particularly when lit up by a fiery sunset, but plain and dull within.

One of the few open spaces devoid of palace or church, and thereby proving its importance to this most ostentatious of cities, is occupied by the Rialto markets: the Pescheria, Fabbriche Nuove, and Fabbriche Vecchie. The sight of the stalls being supplied by skiffs and the raucous hubbub that floats across the water create a lasting impression. The markets are even more worth visiting after dark. With all the stalls reduced to bare skeletons the market traders retreat to one of the many enotecas built into the arches below the Rialto, the orange light from within throwing distorted shadows across the flags.

The Rialto Bridge has always been a by-word for commerce—witness the number of times it is mentioned in Shakespeare's 'Merchant Of Venice'. It is also the most architecturally noteworthy of the three bridges that span the Grand Canal. The Ponte degli Scalzi by the train station is a plain stone span, but is great for your first view of the city. The Ponte degli Accademia is a looping wooden structure towards the head of the canal, arching high above the waters, and giving a great view of the Salute.

Another way to cross the canal is the traghetti—poled gondolas that cross at prescribed points from one side to the other. If your budget does not run to a full gondola experience follow one of the many signs to a crossing point where you can get a sample for 40 cents. Remember—real Venetians do it standing up!

The standard fare for a one-way vaporetto trip is €5 which is good for 90 minutes of hopping on and off down the Canal. Better value is a travel card (one day €10.50, three days €22), or a Venice card which combines these benefits.

The winding alleyways of Castello are wonderfully atmospheric when devoid of tourists. If San Marco yearns with intensity for the tourist dollar, here in Castello, just a few steps from Riva Degli Schiavoni, you get to see life more as it is lived by the remaining inhabitants of Venice. An old lady in a coat tottering down an enclosed alley. Burly men spilling from the doorway of an enoteca, raucous Italian echoing around a small square. Two women in headscarves sat gossiping on the benches before San Giovanni In Bragora.

The €16 set menu advertised outside this cosy little trattoria drew me in, warm amber light being thrown from the window across the angular old masonry of the Campiello. Inside the decor is simple and basic, but with a grand selection of corkscrews and bottle-openers on the walls. Deciding to go for the set menu, I first chose my starter. From the list available (lasagna, fish salad, vegetable soup) I chose Spagghetti al Vongole. This was the highlight of the meal. The clams came in a garlicky (but not too garlicky) butter sauce, messy and juicy. The main course of Venice's omnipresent fried fish - prawns, calimari rings, sardines and polpi (whole baby octopi, their tentacles splayed like fingers on a palm) - was a bit of a let down. It came with a grainy yellow block of what looked like sweet potato but proved to be my first ever taste of polenta. For dessert was amaretto gelati in a tin tray. It looked shop-bought, fresh from the freezer compartment, but the waiter assured me all desserts were homemade. I also had a half-bottle of Soave with my meal - €12, about £8. It was a perfectly nice wine, and you have to take restaurant prices into consideration, but I wouldn't have paid £8 for it in an off-license at home. £4.99 maybe, but not £8.

By this point I had got talking to an American couple at the next table. They had gone a la carte, and their antipasto of sliced meats, and whole fish for main course looked superb. I ordered a Bellini (€5) as I chatted, and they were intrigued by my gelato and ordered one themselves.

The meal was perfectly edible, not the worst I had in my time in Venice, but not the best either. For an introductory meal it taught me what to expect from set menus, and gave me a taste of typical Venetian dishes. All that was required now was to find my way back through the maze of streets!

Check it out for yourselves at www.alvecioportal.it It is closed on Tuesdays.