Attend the Venice Film Festival

Masked balls and Carnevale in the floating city — 18th-century costumes drifting through misty winter squares

A city built on water with no cars — gondolas, Byzantine mosaics, and getting happily lost in the back canals

Glide the back canals by gondola — touristy, yes, but silent, ancient and unrepeatable anywhere else

Ferry to the Venetian lagoon’s rainbow island of fishermen’s houses and handmade lace

Pale limestone towers that turn rose-pink at sunset — Italy’s most spectacular mountains

From Venice and Verona to Prosecco hills and Dolomite peaks — Veneto spans lagoon to mountain

The glamorous "Queen of the Dolomites" — ski slopes, jagged peaks, and a 2026 Winter Olympics host

Ezio Auditore in Renaissance Florence and Venice; the game that made the series.