Venice

Venice is one of those places that exceeds its own reputation, which is saying something. Built across a lagoon on wooden piles, it has no streets in the conventional sense — only canals, footbridges, and narrow calli that lead somewhere unexpected almost every time. The absence of cars gives the city a particular quality of quiet, broken only by water, footsteps, and the occasional echo of a soprano practicing through an open window.

The tourist infrastructure around St Mark's Square is real and can be wearing, but Venice extends well beyond the obvious. The Dorsoduro sestiere has the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Punta della Dogana contemporary art space, as well as some of the most pleasant campo squares in the city. The Castello neighborhood, stretching east from the crowds, feels like a residential city — laundry strung between windows, children on bicycles, small bars without a tourist menu in sight.

Vaporetto Line 1 down the Grand Canal remains one of the great urban journeys, especially at dusk when the palazzo facades catch the last light. Visit the islands too: Murano for glass, Burano for its almost riotously colored fishermen's houses, and Torcello for the Byzantine mosaics in a cathedral that predates Venice itself by centuries. Stay at least two nights — the city earns its keep after the day-trippers leave and the calli quiet down.