VENICE: 26TH TO 30TH NOVEMBER 2026
Venice rises from the water like a daydream, a maze of narrow passages and hidden courtyards where the hum of boats replaces the growl of cars, and bridges carry you from one fascinating world to the next.
Words, thoughts, and invite from Neale James, presenter/producer of The Friday Photowalk Podcast, and Lynn Fraser co-lead in Venice. Lead pictures from Lynn Fraser. Further research pictures supplied.
A photographic retreat in a city built on water and light.
This winter, journey trades postcards and crowded piazzas for the Venice locals know: early-morning markets, quiet monasteries, and weathered boatyards where ancient trades still shape the city’s heartbeat. Over three complete slow days, we wander canal edges and narrow fondamenta, watching the lagoon shift from silver to gold, learning to read a city that reveals itself gently and never all at once.
We’ll stand at dawn with gondolas rocking by the Doge’s Palace, and linger in the hush of the Frari, noticing how winter sunlight brushes old stone. We’ll meet artisans who carve the elegant fórcole that guides every Venetian boat, or paint carnival masks destined for February’s festivities. In Castello and Cannaregio, we find the true domestic rhythm: washing lines overhead, children kicking a ball across a campo, neighbours catching up at the bakery door.
Across the lagoon, islands like San Michele and Giudecca remind us that even beauty ages, tombs reclaimed by moss, old warehouses softening into quiet decay. Venice celebrates impermanence, holding fast to its rituals even as the tide rises.
This photographic retreat is about seeing those rituals. Slowing down. Letting the fog, the bricks, the reflective water do their work. It’s a chance to build creative confidence while photographing a city that feels timeless when the crowds go home.
evening 1: ARRIVAL IN VENICE
THURSDAY 26th NOVEMBER 2026
We gather in the lounge at Hotel Ala, our comfortable base for the long weekend of photography ahead, a chance to meet one another properly, and share what we’re hoping to achieve from our days together in Venice, after which we’ll take our first steps into La Serenissima. As the city slips into blue hour, and then night, we walk from the steps of the Salute to the point of Punta della Dogana, watching lights shimmer across the Grand Canal to San Marco. Then into the quieter Dorsoduro backstreets, getting our bearings over bridges and narrow fondamenta, starting to feel the rhythm of the place. Tomorrow, Venice reveals more.
DAY 2: Dorsoduro and the Art of Craft
FRIDAY 27TH NOVEMBER 2026
Dawn (pre-breakfast)
We head out before the city wakes, to the gondolas by the Doge’s Palace with San Giorgio Maggiore resting quietly across the water. Soft light, gentle lapping, and that first moment where Venice feels like it belongs only to us. Back to the hotel for breakfast and warm hands.
Morning
A slow wander through Dorsoduro, watching everyday craft unfold. We pause by the Squero di San Trovaso to observe gondola builders shaping the city’s most famous boats from across the canal. Then the wide steps of the Salute, the dome catching the low sun, before a coffee stop along the Zattere waterfront where life moves at its own pace.
Lunch in Campo Santa Margherita. If the market is out, it’s a lively backdrop. Time for a little journalling or simply taking in the sounds of a real neighbourhood going about its day.
Afternoon brings a visit to one of Venice’s working ateliers. Choose between the sculptural curves of a forcola workshop or the bright theatre of a mask-maker’s studio. A short, respectful glimpse into traditions kept alive by skilled hands.
Sunset → Blue hour. Over the water again at Accademia Bridge or the Zattere, the sky and canal trade colours as evening arrives.
After dark, a gentle loop through the canals around San Barnaba and San Trovaso. Reflections stretch across the water, footsteps echo softly, and the lamps turn every bridge into a photograph waiting to be made.
DAY 3: Markets, Devotion & Hidden Castello
SATURDAY 28TH NOVEMBER 2026
Pre-breakfast
An early start at the Rialto Market. The Pescheria’s stone floors are still wet from the morning haul, voices quick and purposeful as chefs and neighbours make their choices for the day. We move lightly through the bustle, noticing the colour, the gestures, and the small dramas between stallholders and regulars. A respectful, swift session, this is their workplace and rhythm.
Late morning
Into the calm of the Frari. Cool air, footsteps soft on the stone, a feeling of space to think while the city outside speeds up. Just a short walk away, San Rocco surrounds us with dark wood and lofty canvases. We take our time here, soaking in scale and light before a well-earned coffee at a nearby café.
Afternoon
Across to Castello for a slower, more local rhythm. A short stop at Libreria Acqua Alta, a beautifully chaotic corner where stories pile into bathtubs to escape the tides. Then along Via Garibaldi, where laundry, chatter, and everyday errands set the soundtrack. We carry on to San Pietro di Castello, a grassy, unhurried island that feels almost like a village in its own right. The light softens, shadows lengthen, and the lagoon seems to breathe.
Did someone say Garibaldi?
Blue hour and night
Evening settles by the Arsenale basin — brick walls and quiet quays reflected in still water. Then, Riva degli Schiavoni after dark, the waterfront mostly emptied of crowds, giving us room to play with long exposures and the hush of the lagoon beyond.
DAY 4: Lagoon Colour or Quiet Contemplation (pick one path)
SUNDAY 29TH NOVEMBER 2026
Morning
A short vaporetto ride takes us to San Michele, the island of cypresses and quiet footsteps. We move slowly, noticing weathered stone and soft light on marble, giving space to the people who come here to remember. Architecture, atmosphere, and the sense of time passing — we photograph carefully and respectfully.
Afternoon
Back across the water into Cannaregio, where canals narrow and daily life unfolds without fuss. We wander through side streets and into the historic Jewish Ghetto, pausing outside synagogues and bakeries, finding those gentle moments of neighbours chatting, children playing, laundry shifting in the breeze. Nothing staged, nothing rushed, just scenes that belong to those who live here.
Evening
As the day thins out, we head for the Zattere or the quays looking toward Giudecca. The skyline takes on its evening glow, colours softening across the water. Later, near the hotel, a final stroll with our cameras, lamps mirrored in canals and a kind of hush that feels like Venice whispering goodnight.
DAY 5: DEPARTURE
MONDAY 30TH NOVEMBER 2026
YOUR EXPLORER GUIDES
NEALE JAMES
Neale’s journey into storytelling began behind a radio mic in the Canary Islands, presenting on an English and German language station in Lanzarote. He returned to the UK to train with the BBC, working across regional programmes before stepping into the national spotlight at Radio 1, hosting music shows and documentaries, and appearing on television. After years in broadcasting, he transitioned to a full-time career in photography in 2004, specialising in documentary-style wedding and commercial work from a studio in Berkshire.
But it’s travel that has shaped much of Neale’s creative voice, photographing and film-making in The Gambia, the Highlands of Scotland, and finding the deep spirituality of India. The camera, for Neale, has always been a passport to connection, and in 2020 that translated to launching The Photowalk, a weekly podcast that explores not just how we make pictures, but why.
LYNN FRASER
Lynn is a Scottish Highlands–based photographer and writer whose work explores human connection, fleeting moments, and the quiet poetry of everyday life. Her travels have taken her across India, Mongolia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and beyond, seeking out stories in marketplaces, backstreets, festivals, and quiet, everyday spaces.
She shares these stories through My Journey with a Camera, her Substack publication that blends photography with narrative essays, reflections, and vignettes. It’s a space where visual storytelling meets thoughtful observation, drawing readers into moments of stillness and connection.
Lynn’s work has been exhibited internationally as part of the Atlas of Humanity project, with group shows in Paris, Milan, and London. In 2025, she was named Amateur Photographer of the Year 2024 by Amateur Photographer magazine.
PRICE AND RESERVATION OF INTEREST
Practical Information
Included is hotel accommodation in a quality hotel, with full breakfast. The price of the adventure is £1,850.
Guests must book their own flight to and from Venice plus transfer.
