Italian Ice: Visiting Venice in Cooler Climes

Venice can be hell during the high season (late spring and summer), when tens of thousands of people jam the narrow streets, fill the museums, buy up all the Murano glass tchotchkes, overload the gondolas, and devastate the gelato supply. For a millennium, the powerful Republic of Venice managed to avoid invasion by a who's who of enemies. But now the global economy and mass travel have brought overwhelming waves of euro-bearing friends.

Venice in the late fall and winter, however, is as sublime as summer in the city is ridiculous. The days may be shorter, but so is the wait for tables and service at such popular restaurants and caffès as La Madonna, Florian, and Quadri. Museums and churches are more pleasant to stroll through, so that a day spent at the magnificent Galleria dell'Accademia (a treasure house of Bellinis, Titians, Carpaccios, and Tiepolos) need not be an exercise in neck craning. Though the cost of hotels and pensiones varies widely in Venice, many rooms and apartments are up to 20 percent less expensive in the cooler months, and airfare bargains are more plentiful.

Prices are "sometimes but not always" lower in winter, warns Daniel Morneau, whose company, Vacanza Bella, offers apartment rentals throughout Italy. Still, he recommends the off-season; the best times, he says, are March or April (except the week before and the week after Easter) and any winter month except during Carnevale in February. To conserve those precious euros and feel truly Venetian, you can book one of Morneau's apartments and cook some meals at home (adding the fun of shopping for food at the splendid open market by the Rialto Bridge). So, why not use that winter break to see La Serenissima as it ought to be seen -- serenely?

Owen Edwards is a contributing editor for Edutopia and Smithsonian magazines.