Rooftops of Venice at sunset, looking out across the lagoon toward the mainland.

An independent view of Venice

Life, seen from inside the lagoon.

Stories, places and experiences shaped by water—the people, islands, rituals and quiet details that make the Venetian Lagoon unlike anywhere else.

Photograph: Paul Colin Hennig, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

The editors

Inside the Lagoon is reported, written and photographed independently—no hotel group or tourism board behind the byline. What follows are seventy field-researched features across seven chapters, each one an attempt to see the lagoon as the people who live in it do: tidal, particular and still very much working.

New stories

Six secrets
of the Republic

A saint smuggled under pork, a statue missing its foot since 1204, a shipyard built to outpace every rival, a mailbox designed for accusations, a bench broken into a new word, and a warehouse still reinventing itself after eight centuries.

Editorial illustration of a tranquil Venetian street, evoking a sense of managed tourism.

Venice Now

Venice Introduces Ticketing for Day-Trippers: A New Era in Tourism Management

Venice will implement a fee for day-trippers on select days in 2024 to control tourist numbers and protect its cultural and historical sites.

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Editorial illustration of a modern electric waterbus in Venice, highlighting urban sustainability amidst historical architecture.

Venice Now

Venice's Electric Waterbus Project: Navigating Towards Sustainability

Venice introduces an electric waterbus, blending eco-friendly travel with urban needs, to reduce emissions and preserve its historic canals.

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Editorial illustration of MOSE barrier in Venice against stormy backdrop, highlighting engineering scale and resilience

Venice Now

Securing Venice: The MOSE Barrier's Latest Test

Venice's MOSE tidal barrier system undergoes a critical test in October 2023, promising protection against frequent flooding amid climate concerns.

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Editorial illustration of a solar-powered vaporetto in Venice, evoking modern sustainability amidst historic waterways.

Venice Now

Venice's Leap Towards Sustainability: Solar Vaporettos Set Sail

Discover how Venice's solar-powered vaporetto is revolutionizing eco-friendly travel while maintaining the city's historic charm.

Read the story
Editorial illustration of tide monitoring equipment in Venice, capturing the blend of technology and historic architecture.

Venice Now

Venice Unveils Advanced System to Monitor Rising Tides

Venice's tide monitoring system improves flood predictions and responses, crucial for managing frequent high tides and protecting historic sites.

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Editorial illustration of MOSE barriers raised during high tide, evoking the engineering marvel protecting Venice.

Venice Now

A New Era for Venice: MOSE Barriers Face First Winter Challenge

The MOSE barriers face their first full winter in operation, a crucial test for protecting Venice's historic cityscape from seasonal and unpredictable flooding.

Read the story

Start here

Six ways in,
drawn from seventy

A small selection from the stories, places and experiences already published—a place to begin before you follow your own thread through the lagoon.

The covered fish market hall at Rialto, empty in the early morning light.

Stories

A Morning With Rialto's Market Vendors

Before the day-trip crowds arrive, the fish and produce markets run on a much older rhythm.

Read the story
Fishermen navigating a boat off the shore of Torcello island.

Places

A First-Timer's Guide to Murano, Burano and Torcello

Three northern lagoon islands, each built around a different trade, and how to visit each one without rushing.

Explore places
A traditional Venetian rowing boat moving along a canal.

Experiences

Learning to Row Venetian-Style

A first attempt at the lagoon's own standing, forward-facing rowing technique.

Find experiences
A flooded Venice street during acqua alta, with water reaching building thresholds.

Living Style

Living With Water: How Venetian Homes Adapt to the Tide

How Venetian buildings are engineered, floor by floor, around a tide that comes indoors.

Discover living style
The interior of a squero boatyard with a gondola under construction.

Culture

Gondola Construction: Inside a Squero

How eight types of wood become an asymmetric hand-built boat.

Explore culture
Fishermen working on the docks at Chioggia, at the southern edge of the lagoon.

Food & Drink

Moeche: The Soft-Shell Crab Season Venetians Wait All Year For

Why Venetians track the two brief weeks a year when lagoon crabs shed their shells.

Taste the lagoon

La vita veneziana

Style begins with attention.

To proportion and patina. To what the season brings to the table. To materials made more beautiful by use. Italian living, refracted through Venice, has always been a conversation between elegance and necessity.

Discover Venetian living style

An editorial compass

Follow what
interests you

Every chapter offers another way into the lagoon—from island geography to interiors, craft to cellar.

Stories

Portraits from the water's edge

Fishermen, glassmakers, market vendors and the households carrying lagoon knowledge forward.

Read stories

Places

An archipelago, not a backdrop

Sestieri, outer islands and the routes that connect a lagoon larger than the postcard suggests.

Explore places

Experiences

Ways to move through it well

Boats, workshops, wetlands and itineraries chosen for pace over spectacle.

Find experiences

Living Style

Everyday elegance, shaped by water

Interiors, ritual and the seasonal rhythms of a home built to live with tide.

Discover living style

Culture

Inherited, practised, renewed

Architecture, glass, print, music and traditions understood in context.

Explore culture

Food & Drink

From water to table

Lagoon ingredients, markets, bacari and the wine that fills Venetian glasses.

Taste the lagoon

Stays

A room within a place

Independent profiles chosen for character, setting and a relationship with the lagoon.

Where to stay

Our approach

Independent by design

How we research, choose, disclose and care for the stories we publish.

About the project