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The world’s leading international art bonanza is held on a two-yearly basis. The leafy gardens in eastern Castello are the principal venue, supplemented by the Corderie building in the Arsenale (see Arsenale).

An unmissable 10-day extravaganza that takes over the city as a countdown to Lent. The streets mill with costumed and masked local “nobility” or crazily attired visitors. It gets off to a flying start with the Volo della Colombina (flight of the dove), when either an acrobat or a cardboard dove is launched from the Campanile in Piazza San Marco, showering on-lookers with confetti. The grand finale is the explosive Mardi Gras.

Illegal in Venice itself though you’ll see kids zooming around. Rent a bike on the Lido from Bruno Lazzari.

People crowd on to all available watercraft, decorated with paper lanterns and greenery, for a feast of roast duck and watermelon, followed by a midnight fireworks display. It all takes place near Palladio’s church on Giudecca (see Andrea Palladio) to commemorate the end of the 1576 plague. For those on foot, a temporary pontoon bridge stretches from the Zattere over the Giudecca canal.

The feast day of St Roch, the French saint adopted by the confraternity for alleviating the 1576–7 plague, is celebrated each year at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco (see Scuola Grande di San Rocco). A mass and evening concert conclude the festivities.

The home team Venezia plays at Sant’Elena stadium most Sundays.

The well-reputed 18-hole course at the Alberoni is on the south of the Lido.

Private gyms with state-of-the-art equipment can be found in the Yellow Pages .

There is a small rink at Sant’Elena in Castello, otherwise stick to the Lido pavements (see Lido: beach side).

The city’s stone paving doesn’t do wonders for your knees, so try the city parks.