Venice Virtual Tour 2026 ideas brainstorm

[vivdunstan]

I should be asleep now, but I've had a dire night with my neurological disease, sprinting to the bathroom constantly and unrelentingly for many hours. So ended up typing up ideas for my Venice virtual tour instead of sleeping! Still stuff to fill out, especially some of the details, but thought I'd share the notes so far.


Expected to run sporadically through April, May and June 2026
Giving myself license to immerse myself in Venice, its culture, history, art, architecture, current life etc.
Using a mix of books (non fiction and fiction), maps, websites, galleries, online video tours, TV and film.
Focus on things I can access from home, even largely from my bed given extreme illness.
Anything with ** before it means I've seen/done it before and will probably skip this time, though planning some redos.

Books (non fiction)
- Venice art history one I have
- A History of Venice (John Julius Norwich)
- Secret Venice
- Donna Leon hardback essays book I have
- **Venice by Jan Morris
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Books (fiction)
- Venice Tales (City Tales, short stories)
- The Glassmaker (Tracy Chevalier)
- A Donna Leon Brunetti novel?
- Wilkie Collins "The Haunted Hotel"
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Maps
- Barbari, including the book
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Websites/Galleries/Tours
- Gallerie dell'Accademia (https://www.gallerieaccademia.it/en)
- Prowalk Tours (https://www.youtube.com/@ProwalkTours)
- History Walks in Venice, online articles (https://historywalksvenice.com)
- Condé Nast Traveler Venice Guide (https://www.cntraveler.com/destinations/venice)
- Teatro La Fenice (https://www.youtube.com/@teatrolafeniceIT)
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TV
- Francesco's Venice (DVD)
- Italy's Invisible Cities: Venice
- Doctor Who: The Vampires of Venice
- Ripley (Andrew Scott, Netflix)
- ?? Lovejoy 2-parter
- **Saving Venice (iPlayer)
- **Casanova (iTunes/Apple TV)
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Film
- A Haunting in Venice (Kenneth Branagh)
- Death in Venice (1971, Dirk Bogarde)
- Top Hat (1935, Fred Astaire)
- Summertime (1955, Katharine Hepburn)
- **Venetian Bird
- **Blame It On The Bellboy
- **Don't Look Now
- **Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
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Fun things to do
- Try sketching from our back archive of photos
- Play some Venetian accordion music
- Listen to Venice music (violin?)
- Think about possible ideas for IF game set in Venice
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P.S. I've been to Venice several times in person, so am very familiar with a lot of the core concepts and places. Not sure I will ever get back! But this virtual tour should be fun.