Venice: The Most Crowded City in Italy, With Nobody In It

Venice without the crowds is possible if you know when to go. We filmed Piazza San Marco, the Rialto Bridge and the Accademia at sunrise with nobody in them, walked an empty Venice in the early morning, then left for Certosa, a quiet island in the Venetian lagoon where the vaporetto only stops if you ask. Venice is one of the most crowded cities in Italy. On a tourists per resident basis it tops every other Italian city, and by nine in the morning the piazza is full. But there are a few hours before that when the city belongs to the people who live in it. After hundreds of days here, this is how we spend them. We start with the first boat in from the Lido at 5.45am and walk through an empty San Marco while the street cleaners are still working. We watch the sunrise from the Accademia bridge, look at the resident counter in the pharmacy window near the Rialto, then go up to the Loggia dei Cavalli inside St Mark's Basilica to see the original bronze horses and watch the square fill from above. Almost everything on the front of the basilica was taken from somewhere else. The horses and the Tetrarchs came from Constantinople in 1204. Saint Mark himself was smuggled out of Alexandria under a layer of pork. The city was built as a stage set to impress visitors arriving from the sea, and it is still doing exactly that. Then we leave. Certosa is a few hundred metres from the main islands and most people never set foot on it, because the vaporetto only calls there on request. It was a monastery, then a military island, then derelict for nearly forty years. Now it has woodland paths, a marina, a tiny beach and wild goats, and we have walked around it without passing a single person. Venice is emptying and filling at the same time. Every year more visitors arrive, and every year fewer Venetians live there. This is the Venice we keep to ourselves. Episode facts Filmed: Venice, Italy, late September Start time: 5.45am, first vaporetto from the Lido Locations: Piazza San Marco, Rialto, Accademia bridge, Loggia dei Cavalli, Isola della Certosa Getting to Certosa: ACTV lines 4.1 and 4.2, request stop only Where we stay: the Lido The Floating Nomads Club New films every Friday evening, UK time. Members get early access every Thursday from £2.99 a month, plus exclusive B-Side videos. Click Join under any video to support our work. Joining on a browser rather than the YouTube app means more of your money reaches us directly. Apple take a 30% cut of in-app purchases, so please join through a browser on your phone or computer if you can. 🎵 Original soundtrack by Adam. All music is original, composed and produced by Adam (PhD in audio-visual relationships) to carry the quiet of a city before it wakes. Who are The Floating Nomads? We are Rick and Adam, The Floating Nomads. We sold the house and now split our time between our UK narrowboat Serenissima and months of slow travel abroad by train, ferry and water. Whether spending 200 days in Malta and Venice or travelling from Buxton to Brazil without flying (as seen on CNN), we share the honest reality of life on the move. Our films combine Rick's marketing background with Adam's music PhD to capture the atmosphere of every place we visit. Chapters: 0:00 Venice Without the Crowds 1:07 5.45am: Venice Before Anyone Else 2:07 Piazza San Marco With Nobody In It 2:47 The Busiest Street in Venice, Empty 3:07 How Many People Still Live in Venice? 3:39 Sunrise From the Accademia Bridge 4:23 The Square Starts to Fill 6:28 Stolen From Alexandria: St Mark's Basilica Facade 7:19 The Tetrarchs, or the Four Thieves 8:48 The Real Bronze Horses of St Mark's 9:59 The Loggia dei Cavalli, Above the Crowds 10:45 The Lion That Is Really a Dragon 12:21 Certosa: The Island the Boat Only Stops At If You Ask 14:50 Monastery, Napoleon and 40 Years Derelict 17:20 A Marina Within Sight of St Mark's 19:27 The Wild Goats of Certosa 20:17 Venice Is Emptying and Filling at the Same Time 21:29 Next Week: Vicenza #Venice #Venezia #SlowTravel #FloatingNomads #Certosa #VeniceItaly #StMarksSquare #Overtourism #ItalyTravel #VeniceWithoutCrowds