For the ideal combination of comparative peace and a mild climate, the two or three weeks immediately preceding Easter is perhaps the best time of year. Climatically the months at the end of the high season are somewhat less reliable: some November and December days bring fogs that make it difficult to see from one bank of the Canal Grande to the other. If you want to see the city at its quietest, January is the month to go – take plenty of warm clothes, though, as the winds of the Adriatic can be savage, and you should be prepared for floods throughout the winter. This acqua alta, as Venice’s seasonal flooding is called, has been an element of Venetian life for centuries, but nowadays it’s far more frequent than it used to be: between October and late February it’s not uncommon for flooding to occur every day of the week, and it’ll be a long time before the huge flood barrier (which was begun in 2003) makes any impact. However, having lived with it for so long, the city is well geared to dealing with the nuisance. Shopkeepers in the most badly affected areas insert steel shutters into their doorways to hold the water at bay, while the local council lays jetties of duck-boards along the major thoroughfares and between the chief vaporetto stops and dry land.

This is the weather forecast for Venice in Italy.