Now that we’ve been in this period of stay-at-home orders for a while, museums and art galleries around the world have all gotten their act together to put together content online for their would-be visitors. Some of the world’s best institutions are now providing guests visual visits to some of the world’s best exhibitions. If you are suffering from wanderlust, these are a great cure. Or maybe you have an older student at home who wants to use this as an at-home learning opportunity! Either way, these virtual galleries are a fantastic way to see the world all from the comfort of your couch! 

Table Of Contents

1. The Uffizi Gallery
2. The State Hermitage Museum
3. Frida Khalo Museum
4. The British Museum
5. Musée d'Orsay
6. Rijksmuseum
7. Vatican Museums
8. Van Gogh Museum
9. The Belvedere
10. MET

The Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi Gallery, located in Florence, Italy, is one of the world’s most famous museums. Inside its hallowed walls are some of the most important paintings from the Italian Renaissance. The collection of art was gifted to the city of Florence by the Medici family. The Medici’s were once Italy’s ruling dynasty and amassed some of the world’s greatest artists and artwork in their personal collection. The museum initially opened in 1765 to the general public. Today (or at least pre-covid), it saw more than four million people each year!

Uffizi 360°

Truthfully, visiting the Uffizi can be a bit of a pain. It is one of the most visited museums in the world. Honestly, sometimes I find it to be almost obnoxiously crowded. But for a good reason, I suppose as their collection is so renowned. I just find myself constantly yearning to have the gallery all to myself. Well, 2020 kind of made that happen! 10 of the museum’s most popular galleries are now on display on their website in 360°! You can virtually walk through the gallery and zoom into each painting along the wall.

Uffizi Google Stories

If you are interested in learning more about a specific painting, then head over to Google Art and Culture Galleries. Over here, you can click on any image that catches your eye. It will bring you into a detailed description of the piece and more information about the artists. They also have a few online exhibitions. One of these walks you through every last detail of Piero di Cosimo‘s famous panting “Perseus Freeing Andromeda.”

The State Hermitage Museum

I have long dreamt of visiting the Hermitage Museum, of delving into the dark Russian winter only to wander the halls of this incredible fortress of beauty. The State Hermitage Museum is located in Saint Petersburg, Russia and is the second-largest art museum in the world! The largest museum in the world is, of course, the Louvre. The museum has a deep connection with the Russian empire. The collection was founded by Empress Catherine the Great and contains over three million items! And while you might not be able to view each one of those items in person, they have an AMAZING virtual tour! So you can spend every wake hour exploring this massive treasure trove!

The online tour is at 360°, so you can look up down and all around just as you would if you were really there. The best thing about their online gallery is their information icons. You can click the “i” buttons to get details on the space or various particular objects on display. Many other online galleries make you work a little harder to get information about what you’re seeing. So the fact that this is all right there in the application is fantastic!

Frida Khalo Museum

I have an entire post all about walking (virtually) in the steps of Frida Kahlo. If you’re looking for a quick intro into the life and work of this fantastic artist, then the Frida Khalo Museum has the thing for you! The Casa Azul was Frida’s childhood home where she lived in Mexico City. After going off to school and living independently, she returned to this home in her adulthood. It was there that she would live until her death, inside her beloved Casa Azul. Today, you can explore her family home, which has been transformed into a museum dedicated to the artist. Inside, you can explore her most intimate spaces precisely as they were when she lived there. You can see some of her earliest works of art, sketches and folk creations.

Google Arts and Culture has created a wonderful online gallery of a special exhibit entitled “Appearances Can Be Deceiving“. This exhibit is a collection of Frida’s personal wardrobe, jewllery, prostetics and more. It also contains a series of personal photograph taken by Frida. The exhibition was a travelling collection which was halted in 2020 after the pandemic hit. But now you can explore the entire thing online.

The British Museum

The British Museum, located in London, England was established in 1753! It started off as nothing more than a collection of Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. Sloane has a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British people upon his death. The museum opened to the public in 1759 and, over the years, added to its collection. But most of the growth of the collection was a result of expanding British colonization. Which is to this day one of the most contentious parts of the museum’s collection.

A Journey Through Time

The British Museum has one of the most unique online virtual museums. Instead of taking you through the museums, gallery by gallery exploring in 360°, you are taken on a journey through time. A giant timeline is presented in front of you, separated into 5 different areas of the continent. You can even sort the timeline by a thematic elements from art and design to power, identity, religion, and belief.

Throughout the timeline, there are colour-coded dots that you can click to draw you into that point in time and space. From there you are presented with an object from the museum’s collection. The detailed synopsis of the item is present in both text and audio, so you can get a lovely little story told to you as you explore!

Musée d’Orsay

Ok, I’m going to say it…I like the Musée d’Orsay better than the Louvre. I know, I know! That’s sacrilege. And for the record, I do love the Louvre, but I’ve never been a great fan of those supersized museums. I find them a bit overwhelming and would much prefer a smaller, more curated collection. And it’s also all about location, location, location. And let me tell you, the Musée d’Orsay certainly has a beautiful location, set inside an old 19th-century train station. In fact, one of the online exhibits that you can explore through Google Arts and Culture is all about the location! An old Beaux-arts style railways station was transformed and saved from demolition in the 1970s to become the great Musée d’Orsay.

Musée d’Orsay Google Collection

Today this impressive building holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including the most extensive collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces. Through the Google online galleries, you can see works from Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Zoom right in to see the tiny textures of the brush strokes. You can study the gentle expressions on even the background characters’ faces! Getting this close to these famous paintings is something you can only experience online, as those velvet ropes always keep you at a little bit of a distance.

Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum, located in Amsterdam, is the Dutch National Museum. Inside its great walls are pieces dedicated to the arts and history of Amsterdam. The original Rijksmuseum opened in 1798 in the Hague (a neighbouring city to Amsterdam and the seat of the Netherlands’ government). In 1806, Napoleon Bonapart had established the Kingdom of Holland. Under his rule, he had the museum moved from its current home in the Hague to the new metropolis of Amsterdam. When the museum moved to Amsterdam, it was housed inside an existing palace. But this was deemed not large or regal enough to hold all their masterpieces. Eventually, a new design was a commission, and Pierre Cuypers, with his richly decorative gothic and Renaissance, inspired structure, won over the competition.

The museum is home to over 8,000 objects. But the most visited art works are their precious collection of masterpieces by Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer. Today you can see the interiors of their treasured museum online. The beautiful video gallery opens up as you enter the webpage. The video depicts the interior of the museum as the light each come on one by one as if opening up just for you!

Audio Guide

When you click on a painting, you will be entered into a video and audio guide through the details and history of the piece. At the beginning and end of the track, you can hear the sound of whispering echoing throughout the room. This is meant to replicate the quiet rabble of the voice inside the gallery when it would have been filled with people.

Video Series

The Rijksmuseum also has a video series online where you can listen to curators speaking about some of their favourite pieces in the gallery. These experts are so passionate about the works. It’s so exciting to get this opportunity for a 1:1 guide through the Rijksmuseum.

Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums were founded in the early 16th century by Pope Julius II. He wanted the public to be able to view the immense art collection amassed by the Catholic Church. This included letting visitors enter the incredible Sistine Chapel that is famously decorated with frescoes by Michelangelo. The museum’s collections contain over 70,000 items, but only 20,000 of them are on display for the public. One can only imagine their storage rooms and the hidden treasure you can find in there!

Walking through the halls of the Vatican Museum feels like being allowed to enter a truly holy place. But the hoards of tourists surrounding you kind of ruin the moment. You are only allowed to be inside the Sistine Chapel for a limited amount of time, and they ask you to remain silent (which, of course, too many people ignore). For this reason, getting to explore the galleries in the privacy of your home is a really unique opportunity!

Vatican in VR

Italy was hit the hardest during the first wave of the Coronavirus. Almost immediately their whole country had to be shut down. In order to allow people to continue to experience the wonders of the Vatican Museum, they created an online environment to explore. Inside Vatican 360 you can virtually explore all the great rooms of the museum. Some of the building’s most famous rooms are now yours alone. You can spend as long as you’d like studying the details of the fantastically frescoed walls and ceilings. If you have a VR headset, some of the rooms are also available to be viewed with the headset. I get a little sick using these but honestly it was so beautiful and cool I pushed through it to enjoy the experience.

If you are interested in learning more about the most essential items from the collection, then watch Get Your Guide‘s online tour. This video (embedded below for you) is under 30 minutes long and acts as a primer for your first-time visit. The video explores the most important works of art and architecture locked away inside the museum.

Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is a museum dedicated solely to the works of Vincent van Gogh. Famously, Vincent van Gogh only ever sold one painting during his lifetime, ‘The Red Vineyard.’ Today he is one of the world’s most notable painters, with his works selling for millions upon millions of dollars. But you don’t need to spend a dime to get to stare upon his wonderfully rich and brilliant works of art! The Van Gogh Museum, opened in 1973 and contains more Van Gogh paintings and drawings than anywhere else in the world.

Unravel Van Gogh

The museum has long been at the forefront of digital technology and launched the website ‘Unravel Van Gogh‘ to allow visitors worldwide to experience Van Gogh’s paintings and understand themes in his life that influenced the work. Launching the site, you can explore various of his most famous paintings. Each image has a different interactive experience. Some can be explored from sketch to final artwork. Others have been retouched to appear closer to their original colouring (after years and years of discolouration). The paintings are blended with text and audio, which provide insights into the painting’s smallest details.

Van Gogh exchanged hundreds of letters with his brother, and this correspondence is used in the interactives as clues into the artist’s mind. I spent hours on this site. While not everything is entirely user-friendly, you’ll find the more time you explore, the more things you will uncover. Making the experience more like an investigation. We see Van Gogh’s painting as being some of the most vibrant ones ever made, but getting to see them as they would have appeared when first painted was an absolute shock! I couldn’t believe that they would be even more colourful than they are now, but seeing the digital reconstructions was mesmerizing!

4k Video Tour

If you’d like to see what the museum’s interiors look like, the museum has 4K Video Tours online that you can watch. If you are still clamouring for more Van Gogh, you can also look into the artists’ tragic love life through a little online exhibition through Google Arts and Culture. The exhibit features a series of his paintings and old photographs that tell the story of Vincent’s love affairs.

The Belvedere

The Belvedere was one of the highlights of my trip to Vienna. In the center of town are two ornate Baroque palaces, that play host to a great art gallery and museum. The palaces were once the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy in the 17th century. Today, the Belvedere houses the most extraordinary Austrian art collection dating from the Middle Ages to the present day. The most infamous artists featured inside are undoubtedly Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. 

Augmented Reality

One of the most unique features of Belvedere’s online gallery is its use of augmented reality. You can visit their website and use an app on your phone to study a series of Egon Schiele‘s paintings in greater detail. When you use your phone to scan the image on the screen, it will trigger an audio track that guides you through the work of art. You can also use your phone as a scanner, using infrared technology to uncover hidden secrets beneath the finished painting.

Google’s Arts and Culture website contains Belvedere’s complete collection of digitized artwork for you to view and read about. They also have an excellent digital exhibition on one of the world’s most romantic paintings, Gustav Klimt‘s ‘The Kiss.‘ I was lucky enough to see this work of art in person and was absolutely mesmerized by it. Getting the chance to learn a little bit more about the painting was a great way to recall some of those treasured memories.

MET

The MET or Metropolitan Museum of Art is America’s most famous art gallery. Located in the heart of New York City, the collection is home to over two million works of art! To help organize millions of objects are 17 different curatorial departments. These departments range from everything from the American Wing, Arms and Armour, the Costume Institute, Egyptian Art, European Art, Islamic art, the Medieval Collection at the Cloisters and more.

MET Primer

On the MET’s website, they have a great collection of editorial content called their “Primers.” These ‘Primers’ give you a quick and immersive look at select exhibitions. This fantastically designed website feels like reading an editorial magazine. If you never had the chance to visit the MET Cloisters, which contains the collections of medieval works of art, their online visit is the next best thing!

Their current exhibition features pieces from the newly designed ‘British Galleries’. This reimagined space is meant to provide a fresh perspective on British decorative arts. You can even head over to Soundcloud and listen to the exhibition’s audio guide as you browse the collection online.

Costume Institute Online

The MET’s most famous exhibits are undoubtedly the Costume Institute Collections. The celebrity-rich MET Gala, which raises money for the museum, has brought a ton of new visitors through the doors of the museum over the years. Although this year’s Gala had to be cancelled due to covid, you can view some of their old exhibitions online! I found this access to be amazing as I was only able to make it out there to see a few of them in real life. Getting to go back in time and study some of their older exhibitions is a beautiful opportunity.

Andrew Bolton, the curator of these exhibits, is one of my heroes, and I loved being lead through the displays by his comforting voice. Many of the items on display in the Costume Insitute are so delicately sewn and contain a myriad of complex textures. Getting the chance to zoom in and see these features in such microscopic detail is something you could only experience online.

I hope you enjoyed this guide to my favourite online museums and galleries. I think visiting one of these will really help make you feel like you’ve had a little adventure, even if you never left the house. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out my other virtual travel content. Let me know in the comments where you’d want to explore virtually that hasn’t been created just yet!

Happy (Virtual) Travels, Adventurers

The post 10 Best Art Galleries You Can Still Visit Virtually first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.

There is nothing to compare to watching the gondoliers paddling down the canal at sunrise while you sip your espresso. Or coming home after a long night exploring the city, to sit and enjoy an Aperol spritz on your balcony watching the sunset against the water. But thankfully one of the greatest things about Venice is that there are SO MANY FREE things to do. You’ll be amazed that you could spend an entire weekend away here without spending a dime on entertainment. So whether you want to save a bit of money to splurge on a hotel or are just looking for an all-around cheap way to see the city, this is the guide for you!

Table Of Contents

1. Transportation
2. Guided Walking Tours
3. 1. Hop on a Free Tour of the Grand Canal
4. 2. Grab Breakfast at the Rialto Market
5. 3. Take a break on the Rialto Bridge
6. 4. Soak in the Sights in St Mark’s Square
7. 5. Gaze at the Mosaics of Basilica di San Marco
8. 6. Enjoy Solemn Contemplation at Bridge of Sighs
9. 7. Awe at Artwokrs inside Gallerie dell'Accademia
10. 8. Visit the Baron's Gallery inside the Ca d'Oro
11. 9. Find the Plague Church, Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute
12. 10. Hop over to San Giorgio Maggiore Island
13. 11. Discover the Rainbow Houses of Burano 
14. 12. Admire Ancient Glasswork in Murano 
15. 13. Find Vivaldi's Music at the Musical History Museum
16. 14. Relax on the Beach
17. 15. Peruse the Famous Mask Shops
18. 16. Stroll along the Zattere at sunset

Transportation

Other than hotel and food, the only other cost involved in your “free” weekend in Venice will be your transportation. A great way to save on this is to buy a multi-day Vaporetto travel card. The Vaporetto is a Venetian public waterbus, or public boat. There are 19 routes that travel all over the main island of Venice. In addition, these boats also service nearby islands, such as Murano, Burano, and the Lido beachfront. While you can get around the city mostly on foot, the vaporettos will allow you to travel to the other island, or get around Venice itself much faster.

Is the travel card worth it? The short answer is yes. A one-way ride will cost you €7,50 and the two-day pass is only €30. So if you plan on just taking the Vaporetto to and from your hotel, you’ve already spent half of what the travel card would cost. The pass allows you to hop on and off as you please! If you’ve invested in a transport card, this will be all you need to spend to enjoy a magical weekend in Venice!

Guided Walking Tours

Many blogs and travel sites will advise taking a free walking tour when visiting Venice on a budget. There are a few different operators who run these “free” tours which depart multiple times throughout the day. While I sincerely don’t have anything against these tours, a word of caution. Despite the word “free” being in the title, most of these companies work on the assumption of getting a tip at the end of the tour. These tips truly do help pay these employees and keep the tours running.

While it’s not mandatory, it really is recommended and you might feel pressured to do so. I’ve seen people tip as much as 50€ for a group of two people, and that is much more than some of the paid tours charge for their services! I wish they would simply charge a flat fee instead since I think this would greatly benefit both the tour guides and the guests. This would prevent people from feeling pressured to pay for something which was advertised to them as being “free”. If you are truly looking for a free walking tour I have a few guided tours on my blog. Simply download the offline maps and save the text to your phone for a little bit of history along your journey!

1. Hop on a Free Tour of the Grand Canal

With your unlimited 2-day Vaporetto pass, hope on Line 1, at any of the stops along the Grand Canal. Jump on, get a seat near the edge of the boat and ride around the entirety of the Grand Canal. This Vaporetto line will take you around the Piazzale Roma, the Rialto Bridge, Piazza San Marco, and the Lido di Venezia. It’s the perfect way to introduce yourself to the city. You can ride this loop as many times as you want. Maybe you want to switch sides of the boat to take in the sights on the other side of the canal!

Don’t skip a ride along the Grand Canal at night time. You can hop on and see all the spectacular sights of the city against a moonlit canal. If you want to know more about the different buildings along the canal check out my blog post for an in-depth guide at some of the most important architecture along this famous waterway.

2. Grab Breakfast at the Rialto Market

Now that you’ve been introduced to the look of the city from the water, it’s time to meet the people of Venice. And there is no better place to get a peek into the real lives of the residences of Venice than to head to the Rialto Market! The Rialto Market is one of the last remaining fresh food markets in the city. As such it is a bustling place for locals to come and buy their food for the day. The fruits and vegetables are always seasonal. If you’re looking for a snack there is nothing more refreshing than a basket of freshly picked fruits! Shopping here helps keep this market alive and running so please come hungry!

Fresh fish is caught just outside the canal, you can’t get much more local than that! The fish market, or Pescheria, is located inside a neo-gothic hall. The hall is a soaring building with richly ornamented columns surrounding the entrance. Fish was the lifeblood for Venetians for hundreds of years and under this great edifice, you truly feel how important fishermen were to the foundation of Venice.

3. Take a break on the Rialto Bridge

The Rialto Bridge is the most famous of all of Venice’s canal bridges. The bridge has become somewhat of a tourist trap, with shops selling souvenirs lining the entire walkway above. But if you arrive early in the morning when the shops are all closed, this bridge still keeps its magic. There are these two little nooks on the bottom of the bridge, where you can sit right under it. The water lapping at your feet. It’s one of the most amazing places to watch the boats and gondolas float by. And with a basket of fruit from the market, the perfect spot for a quick picnic. The bridge is also one of the most iconic spots for pictures in Venice.

4. Soak in the Sights in St Mark’s Square

The Piazza San Marco of St. Marks Square is the largest, and most famous square in Venice. It was been called the “drawing room of all Europe” by Napoleon when he first came to the city. And while some of the buildings and museums which encircle it have admissions at high prices, the square itself is completely free to explore on the outside.

NOTE:

New rules for visiting the square have been instituted to help preserve the city from the flocks of tourists who often overrun it. There is now a limit on the number of people who can enter the square at one time. And officials are stricter when it comes to keeping tourists from sitting on the ground of steps. Remember those iconic pictures of people feeding the pigeons in Venice? Don’t do that! It is now illegal to feed the pigeons and fines will be given out to tourists found doing so. While these rules might seem intense, the city is really just trying to preserve their history and if these small measures help with that, it’s the least you can do as a guest to follow along.

Dominating the skyline of the square is the great Clock Tower of Venice. This clock town has stood here for hundreds of years and once was the main way that citizens would know both the time of day, or could be alerted to fires or attacks on the city.

5. Gaze at the Mosaics of Basilica di San Marco

One of the most stunning sights in Venice is the Basilica di San Marco or St Mark’s Basilica! The basilica is free to enter, the only portion which requires admission is the Museum, the treasury and the Golden Altarpiece. Some tourists pay to get into the church through a special entrance, but as long as you come early in the morning you won’t have an issue getting in. The line moves quickly and in no time you’ll be face to face with this truly awe-inspiring interior.

The church was built during the Byzantine period and is one of the finest examples of Italian-Byzantine architecture anywhere in Italy. The building dates all the way back to the 11th century when mosaics were all the rage! The interior of the church, with its multi-domed ceiling, is COVERED in gold and jewel-tone mosaics. They sparkle and shine in the light of the sun and glimmer and glint against the flickering candles. The mosaics took centuries to be completed and looking at this amazing workmanship is such a dream to experience. And all for FREE!

6. Enjoy Solemn Contemplation at Bridge of Sighs

Beside the Basilica, around the corner from the Doge’s Palace, is the Bridge of Sighs. This bridge was once used by prisoners as the gateway between the city courts and their prison cells. For prisoners sentenced to death, this was their last chance to look out at the blue waters of Venice. The haunting history of the bridge makes it a powerful picture in itself but the bright white marble set against the blue sky and neon teal waters of the canal is what makes it truly superb.

7. Awe at Artwokrs inside Gallerie dell’Accademia

On the first Sunday of every month in Italy, there are over 430 museums that are free to enter. This was a measure by the government to make their great works of art more accessible to every citizen and visitor. One of these museums is the famous Gallerie dell’Accademia. The Accademia is arguably the most important museum in Venice so getting to see it for free feels like a real treat.

This museum would normally cost €12.00 but on the first Sunday of the month, it’s FREE. You will have to get in a free ticket line, which is often very long, but worth it to save a bit of cash! Wake up as early as you can and make this your first stop of the day to ensure you get in as quickly as possible. The Accademia features pre-19th-century art from Venice and beyond. Highlights include paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, Bellini, Tintoretto, and (my favourite) Titian!

8. Visit the Baron’s Gallery inside the Ca d’Oro

While the Accademia might be the most famous, my favourite museum in Venice is the Ca d’Oro. This gorgeous manor with its lace tracery exterior sits along the Grand Canal. It once belonged to Baron Giorgio Franchetti. The Baron was a great art collector and after he died he donated all these works for art and the house they rested inside to the city of Venice. Even in death, he wanted to make sure everyone could enjoy his collection. There is something really special about personal art collections and being able to see them in situ.

The Ca d’Oro is another one of the museums that’s free to enter on the first Sunday of the month. Not only are there great works of art to see here but you can also study the amazing architecture inside the palace. The best part of being there is getting to step out onto the grand terrace with its gorgeous floor tiles and stone balcony looking out over the Grand Canal. One can only imagine what living there must have felt like!

In the court downstairs, look for the sole purple porphyry column. This ancient column contains the Baron’s ashes which were interred here after his death. It’s nice to pay homage to the great collector during your visit!

9. Find the Plague Church, Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute

The Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute is one of the most incredible buildings in Venice, but turn your back to it for a second and you’ll be surprised what you see. Bobbing up and down in the waters are beautiful black lacquered gondolas set against a backdrop of unbelievable Gothic architecture. It’s a rather simple scene but one which I find immensely charming. The church is free to enter to you need to go inside! Since the church was made in honour of the end of the plague, most of the art and symbolism you’ll find throughout the church in some way refers to death or the plague. This makes it a very uniquely themed church. 

10. Hop over to San Giorgio Maggiore Island

San Giorgio Maggiore is an island situated right across from St. Mark’s Square. Although the island also has some incredible places to visit, there is nothing like sitting on the water edge and taking in the view. From here you have a completely clear panoramic view of the city of Venice. This island makes for a phenomenal photo op!

11. Discover the Rainbow Houses of Burano 

Stepping outside of the main island is so important when visiting Venice. Burano is one of the most popular islands due to its multi-coloured fisherman’s village. These dwellings are home to both some of the cities best fishermen as well as the famous lacemakers. During the 15th century, Italy’s finest lace was produced here. The houses along the canals here are each painted a different colour, and bright colours at that. They make for some of the most exciting and dynamic pictures and are well worth the 45-minute boat ride out to the island.

12. Admire Ancient Glasswork in Murano 

Murano, a sister island to Burano, is less popular but no less incredible. The island is most notable for its glass blowing craftspeople. Hidden away from the main canal, you’ll find these secret passageways leading you throughout the rural homes of real Venetians. Discover the ancient craft of turning sand into glass and look at the breathtaking creations that these glassworkers can produce! Window shopping doesn’t cost a thing and it feels almost like a free visit to a great glass art gallery.

13. Find Vivaldi’s Music at the Musical History Museum

As a child, one of the only ways I could fall asleep was listening to a book on tape. One of my favourites I would listen to was all about Antonio Vivaldi and his life in Venice. To my great pleasure, I discovered the Museo Della Musica, located inside the San Giacomo do Rialto Church, features a collection of items and history about Antonio Vivaldi’s life. In addition to the Vivaldi exhibit, there is are also collections of instruments from as early as the 1600s, as well as presentations on the history of violin making. The museum is always free to enter which makes it a great option for those budget travellers.

14. Relax on the Beach

Just on the other side of Venice is a huge island called Lido di Venezia or Venice Lido. This narrow strip of land separates the Adriatic Sea from the Venetian lagoon and is now a large public beach! To get to the Lido beach you can just catch the Vaporetto from the main island and then walk from Lido dock. Even if you don’t want to swim in the water, strolling along or laying out on the sand is a great way to relax and take in the ocean air.

15. Peruse the Famous Mask Shops

Venice is full of amazing shops, but the most unique to the city are the Venetian costume mask stores. Venetian masks are worn primarily during Carnivale, a festival held in February. When the festival was established in the 13th century, the tradition of wearing masks began as people wanted to conceal their identity. This allowed both the rich and the poor to dance and celebrate together without social hierarchies coming into play for the duration of the festival.

Today, masks are sold in shops throughout Venice and are one of the most popular souvenirs. While real ones are fairly costly, exploring the shops which sell them, even if you don’t plan on buying anything, is like walking around a museum. To find one of the most authentic mask shops head to Papier Mache Venezia. There is the meaning behind each different masks and if you want to learn more about them read my mask guide!

16. Stroll along the Zattere at sunset

In the 15th century, the area now known as the Zattere was a delivery dock for the mass amount of timber brought into the city. Zattere in Italian means rafts. The timber would arrive in the city on large rafts, giving the area its name. Timber was not only used to constructed the walls of grand palazzos and houses in Venice, it was literally the ground on which the houses were built on. So timber was one of the most important imports in the city. While the docks have disappeared, the area is now a peaceful promenade. Shipping was a rich man business in the 15th century and many of the timber importers built gorgeous manor houses along this stretch which makes wandering around this street a feast for the eyes. Sunset is one of my favourite times to visit the Zattere. Not only is it a peaceful place to end your day, but the view out to the lagoon reflects the sun as it descends over the city of Venice. Casting that golden light across the water.

Hopefully this tour gives you some great ideas on how to see Venice without spending a dime on your entertainment! There is so many other great things to do if you want to enter into any of the places we admired from the exterior but I really wanted to show how even a city as popular as Venice can still be done on a tight budget!

Let me know in the comments what your favourite thing to do in Venice was or if you have any other free things to do which you’re dying to share!

Happy Travels Adventurers!

The post The Best Free Things to do in Venice first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.