I visited one of Italy’s busiest towns off season

DAUBED on an ancient wall, the curt sentence “All tourists are bastards” isn’t exactly welcoming – but it sums up a growing problem with tourists in one of the world’s most beautiful cities.

In summer, it can be hard to move on Venice’s most popular streets, but visit in low season and discover quiet backwaters where life is much slower — and cheaper — and overall a much more pleasant experience.

My tour guide, Guiliano from Devour Tours, tells me: “Even the fish market, where I shopped with my mother as a child, is only open for traditional reasons these days and, of course, for tourists.”

Venice, some 1,605 years old, has long been one of Italy’s most visited and famous cities. Once known as the home of merchants, its business today is tourism — whether the locals like it or not.

It’s fair to say many of them don’t. Locals are particularly against short-term rentals, saying they have ­hollowed out neighbourhoods, pushing residents out.

Authorities have listened, responding with cruise ship bans, crowd controls and, most infamously, entry fees.

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The €5 fee — which rises to €10 for tourists who book fewer than four days in advance — typically only applies to weekends from April to July, so you won’t be charged on most weekdays.

But other residents understand that Venice needs tourism to survive.

Valentina, the manager at the historic Hilton Molino Stucky hotel’s rooftop Skyline Bar, is among that number.

As I sip on my Rising Tempest cocktail — a Venetian take on a Long Island Ice Tea — and nibble on focaccia, Valentina explains that while tourists can be “a little irritating in high season”, she appreciates they are now part of the city’s make-up.

At the bar — located in a former flour mill on pretty Giudecca island and with stunning views of the main city — she tells me: “Overall we love tourists and we do need them.”

The welcome at my hotel, the beautiful Maison ­Venezia, is warm and as impressive as its location.

In the Cannaregio district, the four-star resort has Murano glass chandeliers and decor featuring traditional Venetian decorative motifs. Just a short stroll to the iconic Rialto Bridge, it is incredibly peaceful.

My room was so quiet, with a balcony overlooking a small canal, it was almost impossible to believe I was in a city, let alone one of the most touristy in Europe.

Even out of season, it’s easy to see Venice’s draw.

It has no roads, just canals, gondolas and crumbling palaces rising straight out of the water. There’s hundreds of years of history, maze-like alleys and sunsets that light the whole lagoon — home to more than 100 islands — on fire.

People have been coming here for years for the romance, the cicchetti — the Venetian alternative to tapas — and a unique feeling of drifting through a city that has not really changed for centuries. Even in low season, tourist must-sees like St Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace and the Grand Canal are busy.

However, head just a few streets back and Venice is a totally different experience, even in high summer.

During my tour, we stop off in Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, one of the city’s most beautiful squares.

Surprisingly, it’s very quiet, with just a few tour groups and locals milling about.

When I ask Guiliano for the ­reason, he says the square is a contradiction unique to Venice.

“It’s in the city centre, but off the beaten track — and it’s pretty much hidden even in the summer,” he says.

“In London, tourists go back and forth exclusively between Piccadilly and Leicester Square for their entire trip, and avoid places like Shoreditch. It’s the same here.”

While cafes in St Mark’s Square are notoriously pricey — think £12 for a cappuccino — more rustic spots off the main drag sell glasses of delicious Italian wine for about £3.50, cicchetti for £1.30 and pizzas from £7.

Venice in high season might lose a little of its magic, but overtourism is easier to dodge if you pick your moment.

Visit off-season and you’ll find a calmer, more authentic side. Crowds or not, though, there’s nowhere quite like it — and that’s why people keep coming back.