h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Ice Cream!

Where is all the water? There's almost nothing left!!!!

Arrival is only by train and car. Once arriving buy a map IMMEDIATELY. In some places even the map won't help, but it might make you feel better. You'll also need a compass. If you think the map is enough, you're wrong. TAKE the compass. Honest, you'll need it.

All the towers in Venice lean. Don't confuse them with 'the' leaning tower in Pisa. Oh and don't go there either, its a horrible tourist trap, and the medival walled and moated town of Lucca to the north is a much more sincere version.

The one-stop-must-see area is by St Mark's (San Marco) Square. It has a gold church there (no kidding) where the Venetian's stole the body of St Mark from Alexandria and buried it under their new gold church funded from beating the hell out of infidels. Its really impressive though, but there are many extras that aren't free. If you're on a shoestring, the only one I'd recommend is the tower, which gives a great view over the city. Only trouble is if you expect to see the canal network, you'll be disappointed, pretty much all you can see is the similar roofing.
The Ducal Palace is rather expensive to get into. But if your shoestring is running tight and its late, you can consider sneaking in the exit when the guards seem to take off early.

There -are- McDonalds in Venice. What a disappointment that was. Took quite a while to stumble into them though. All rather close together and as obnixious as anywhere (except for the Aquarium one on the Thames).

Most of the cheap hotels are about the train station. If you have a couple of hundred thousand lira to blow, you'll be looking about the grande canal.

Rather a large naval base on the eastern side.