Venice has to be explored at 4am. The change in the city is quite simply indescribable to somebody who has only seen it during the tourist-infested day. Wait long enough and you get first the birds, then the dawn, and finally early-bird locals up and about, much friendlier than they are during the day as they presume you are one of them.
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If you can't face a 4am start, you can get a taste of the tourist-free life of the city by catching a waterbus along the Grand Canal in the dark, when the lights inside the buildings are lit. There's hardly any traffic on the water so the city feels like it is drifting off to sleep. Peering into the windows, glimpsing the chandeliers and ornate ceilings, is magical.
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