Sooner or later you will become lost in Venice, a city of more than 100 separate islands divided by roughly 150 canals and crossed by 400 bridges. Its narrow and closed streetscapes make it difficult to navigate. To help, signs all over town indicate the way to the train station, the Rialto Bridge, and Piazza San Marco, the heart of the city.

Central Venice is divided into six neighborhoods, or sestieri (San Marco, Castello, Dorsoduro, Cannaregio, San Polo, and Santa Croce). Addresses consist of the name of the sestiere and a number, though the numbers don't go in any sequential order, so San Marco 3672 and 3673 might well be several streets apart. When necessary, addresses give the nearest calle (street), campo (field -- a piazza in any other Italian town), or bridge. If a street runs alongside a canal, it is a riva or fondamenta, and a street with shops is often called a ruga or salizzada.

You walk everywhere in Venice, and where you cannot walk you go by water. While the city has hundreds of bridges, the Grand Canal can only be crossed on foot at three points: Ponte degli Scalzi, near the train station (Ferrovia); Ponte di Rialto, at the Rialto; and at Ponte dell'Accademia. As an alternative, take the traghetti, essentially gondolas that ferry across the canal. The vaporetti (water buses) that circulate through the city on set routes are best used to cover long distances.