IN PICTURES: The stunning beauty of Venice covered in snow

Click here to see all the photos of snow in Venice at the bottom of the page or continue reading to discover the magic of such a rare moment through our words and experience.

During the first hours of the night of February 28th, 2018, a relatively intense snow storm hit Venice. Over the course of a few hours, the whole city got covered in a thick layer of white snow, which gave Venice a new and possibly even more mesmerizing look.

At 1 AM, just before going to sleep, we noticed thick snowflakes falling down from the sky. After recovering from the surprise that all Venetians experience when they see snowflakes in Venice, we took the opportunity to grab our cameras and smartphones and document this rare event!

We decided to immediately share this special moment with all those people who follow us by streaming a live video from Saint Mark’s Square, as well as to document this very unusual and intense snowfall through several pictures we shot around the sleeping city.

Click here to watch the live video of Venice in the snow

Our first steps, literally, out of the comfort of our warm home and into the cold snowy night of Venice.

A quick look at the statue of Paolo Sarpi, an icon of Venetian history, which didn’t seem to mind the cold as much as we did.

Passing by the traghetto di Santa Sofia, where it is possible to board a gondola to cross the Canal Grande (or Grand Canal) and reach the Rialto Market. We can assure you that it is much busier than this most of the time!

We just reached the end of the Strada Nuova and are now approximatively halfway through our journey. Looking at it now, it looks almost as a challenging walk. It was not.

Campo Santi Apostoli looked incredible with all that snow, and definitely different to how most of us are used to seeing it!

We stopped in Campo Santi Apostoli only for a few minutes, to find a nice angle to take a few photographs, yet the amount of extra snow we found right on the next bridge made us wonder where it all came from!

Well, the steps of the Rialto bridge didn’t look all too inviting with all that snow, and we had no reason to climb them, as we were directed towards Saint Mark’s square… so we did climb them anyway, as we didn’t want to miss a photo opportunity!

Looking at the picture we got of the Grand Canal, we think that climbing our way up was worth it… we don’t know however if it was worth also the even greater hassle of climbing down the Rialto bridge with all that slippery snow!

After making it down the bridge, we decided to go straight towards Saint Mark’s square, with no further interruptions. Our aim was to catch the Basilica di San Marco DURING the snowfall! And hey, we managed to do so!

Since our first objective was met, we could relax and… decided to stream a 30 minutes long live video during the snowfall!

Afterwards, the snow had temporarily stopped falling, so we took a few more shots of the Basilica di San Marco and the Campanile di San Marco.

One of the gondolas covered in snow, with San Giorgio in the background…

The facade of the Palazzo Ducale, or Doge’s Palace, facing the Bacino di San Marco, the Saint Mark’s Basin with a beautiful foreground of thick, white, soft snow…

And, of course, an image of the bridge of sighs… which unfortunately was not illuminated! Well, we’d been quite lucky until then, so we were not too upset about this little inconvenience.

We then found a nice spot to have the Doge’s Palace, the column with the winged lion of Saint Mark, and the Saint Mark’s Bell tower all in one frame. The fun part, however, was yet to come!

It was already 4AM when we found, scattered here and there around Saint Mark’s Square, young Venetians and exchange students, enjoying the magic of the night in a Venice covered in snow! Some chilling with a nice glass of wine…

Some engaging in a no-holds-barred snowball fight…

And others working with passion and care in order to create a fabulous snowman, right in Piazza San Marco, in front of the Basilica!

Here he is, the first snowman of the season! As the creators proudly told us, they designed it with a wonderful “panza da spritz”, a “spritz belly”… a snowman could hardly be more Venetian than this, could he?

Before leaving, we had the sudden desire to take two more pictures, to capture two more symbols beloved by all Venetians that would help us remember this magic night in Venice, filled with snow, snowmen and snowball fight was all just a dream. The column with the winged lion of Saint Mark’s covered in snow…

… and the magnificent Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, or as Venetians call her, “La Salute”!

When we woke up a few hours later (yes, we were so excited we couldn’t sleep) we decided to immediately go for a quick walk to try and see if something had remained of the previous night…

There was only a bit of snow left in Venice but we weren’t disappointed, as we knew that a part of the magic had been hopefully captured by our pictures and that we could share them with all of you!

If you enjoyed our pictures of the Snow in Venice and are now planning a trip to come to visit the “Serenissima”, make sure to check out the resources below: