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To say Venice is crowded would be an understatement. Honestly, I don’t recall it being so jammed packed with tourists like this back in 2005 when we visited the first time. St. Mark’s Square is the worst with lines of tourist queuing up to gain entry to the cathedral and to the Doge’s Palace. Then comes Rialto Bridge lined up with booths selling the worst touristy crap you can imagine and throngs of eager buyers justifying their presence. After that it is the lines of shoppers stopping to look in every window to admire things from tennis shoes to designer handbags. Ugh!
Plus, it was hotter than we expected. The weather sites said 70’s during the day and 50’s at night. When the sun was out it felt much hotter. The evenings were cool, though. And far less crowded.
While we were there, there were at least two gigantic cruise ships that disgorged their load of tourists each morning and collected them each evening.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome city and we are glad to have visited. Once you got away from the main sites it was very pleasant and picturesque.
The photos below don’t quite capture the magnitude of the crowds, but they give you an idea.
I totally love Venice. I have been in June and Feb. June was like your May experience: crowded, mostly with day visitors. A bit warm. And I was warned in the 90s that later in the summer can get a bit smelly as well as warm. Feb was awesome. No crowds, about 40F and humid at night, so you have to deal with that. Ironically it didn’t bother the Houstonians I was with but the Coloradans got cold. Also, some kind of thespian festival was going on and masked people would dash into a small plaza and act out a scene for a few minutes, then dash away down the narrow streets.