Venice

Venice is two cities: the one between ten and six when the day visitors are in, and the one before and after. Staying in a palazzo on the Grand Canal or a quiet hotel in Dorsoduro gives you the second. We arrange a private launch for the lagoon islands, a table at the trattorias that still take Venetians, and a guide who knows which church to enter at eight in the morning. Carnival and the Biennale are the peaks; November, with mist on the water and rooms at half price, is a considered choice.