You see, the Venetians have spent over a thousand years professionally fleecing other nations and their citizens. About five hundred years ago, they changed their policy of barging into other people's homes and stripping them of their gold, and decided it was easier to simply stay at home and let the nations of the world come to them. This is not an indictment of the Venetians; imagine how even more rapacious Disneyland would be if all of the concessions were run by independent businessmen. Tourism is the main - if not the only - source of cash, and they attempt to relieve you of it with as much charm as you could want. And Venice is always worth every penny. So we pass on our experiences, so that others can save money on the areas that don't matter, and perhaps splurge where it is really special.

- Book budget airline flights well in advance.
- Book airport parking in advance
- Catch an early flight there, and a late one back to enjoy cheaper prices & full days in Venice.
- Research your basic costs, set a budget, and stick to it.
- Confirm the price of everything when you ask for it.
- Explore the city - enjoy the waterways, architecture, rambling laneways, colourful shop windows, markets etc
- Venice's churches are particularly good value; enjoy old master paintings in situ for free, while having a valuable sit down.
- Be very specific about what you order (particularly drinks, beer and wines), to save surprises when you get the bill.
- Accept the fact that you will end up paying more for something than you thought you would. It's a fact of life in Venice.

If you really must be a tourist:

Who should try this type of trip? Anyone with a love of History, or Art, Music, window-shopping, or those with a romantic soul and a Significant Other, and a limited budget of about £150 (or about $245 US)

The flight: Booking a flight long in advance and out of season is the key. The discount websites and budget airlines are definitely worth checking, particularly if you're flying from Europe. The prime tourist periods are April to October, with the Carnivale in February, and you'll pay peak prices for flights and accommodation at these times. Off-season means that the canal is chilled and less stench-ridden, there are few crowds in the narrow streets, fewer mass tours cramming into the cathedrals and museums, and the prices are lower everywhere.

According to the guidebooks, January and December can have floods and are fairly chilly (just above freezing is the standard temperature), making March and November the best bets. But we couldn't turn down the find on Ryanair for late January: £2.99 one way (or about $4.50 US), returning the next day for £4.50 (about $6.75 US). Of course, there are all the airport taxes, VAT, booking charges etc that you have to add on, but after all that was factored in, we reserved two flights for under £60 for the two of us, round trip. It meant leaving at 6:30am and returning at 11:30pm the next night, but that meant all the more time in Venice and paying only for one night's stay.

Research: Go online if you have access, and do a search for inexpensive hotels, Venice. Look at the comments previous travellers have left on message boards etc on travel sites such as the Rough Guide. Look for the best restaurants in your price range, sites of interest, notes of things you'd like to do and paste into a document you can print and bring with you. Also bring the best tour book you can find in your local library, and photocopy the pages that interest you. Bring a Venice city guide on the trip, preferably one that has easy to read maps (that can be found and read while standing on street corners) and has up to date prices on everything from admission costs, fares, meals and drinks.

The Hotel: If we wanted to be centrally located, we needed to be on the San Marco sestieri (or district). We found a place called the Noemi just off the main Piazza San Marco. According to the Rough Guide, it was clean though not exceptional, and it was the bargain of all the places we'd looked at, costing £39.00 or $60.00 for a double room with a shared bath.

Getting to and from the airports: We decided to drive to the airport, and booked our parking in advance online. There are huge savings this way, especially for long-term parking. Tip: if you want big savings on your airport parking, go for at least 3 days and book well in advance.

According to our tour guides, there were several ways of getting from the main Venice airport (Marco Polo); unfortunately, our flight wasn't going there. Ryanair uses Treviso, a terminal that looks as though when it grows up it might be a bus terminal. From there you can take the #6 bus to Treviso town, and from there another bus or train to the Piazza Roma, Venice, but we decided that the saving of one Euro each wasn't worth the lost time and probable confusion, so we took the direct ATVO (Azienda Trasporti Veneto Orientale) for 7.20 Euros, roundtrip.

Money: Venice is entirely converted to the Euro (€). Find where you can get the best rate on your exchange. In Britain, you can order currency commission-free through the Post Office, but you must order at least 3 days in advance. We set our budget at a challenging £100.00 for the two days, which worked out to €150.00. We brought our bankcards just in case and had we needed them, there were several bank machines scattered about Venice.

Cutting Costs: The one area that we were warned about is the cost of eating almost anywhere in Venice. So we decided that we would cut the costs by splurging on a few romantic meals and save on the rest by bringing lunches and snacks with us, bought in England for around £6. We packed only the minimum amount of clothes, toiletries and extras into two small backpacks.

Make up a daily approximate budget and allow a few euros for gifts. For the off season, bring waterproof shoes and coat, a rain hat or umbrella, and a change of socks for when your feet get wet. Possibly gloves and a scarf depending on the season (it was very chilly in January), and of course, a camera with plenty of spare film.

Having done all of the above, we notified our friends, tried fruitlessly to get to bed early the night before, and left at 3:00 AM on our adventure.

THE TRIP:

Now I was very worried that, by paying such an incredibly low fare, we'd have to check in early or find they'd given our tickets away. But we were treated well, the flight took off on time and after eating two of our sandwiches, we dozed until we were landing in Treviso. Customs accepted my Irish passport well, and the bus tickets to Venice's Plaza Roma were available inside the little terminal. The bus pulled out ten minutes later, and with one stop at the Mestra train station on the way, 45 minutes later we were in Venice.

From Roma, it is possible to take a gondola or the vaporetto directly to San Marco, but we were here to walk and that's what we did. Despite the weather forecast warning that it would be overcast, there was a beautiful blue sky that brought out all the colours of the city and the topaz blue of the waters. Like most of our worries about what might go wrong, Venice was determined to show us that it could be even better than we dared hope. And that was the story of our trip. Serendipity was the theme.

We began our walk from Roma, across a canal from the stazzione Santa Lucia. We had no idea what to expect. Were the waterways the only way about? Would we be forced to pay for water taxis or, even worse, gondolas to get about? Fortunately, Venice is a city of streets bisected by the occasional canal. A street may lead to a dead end, but more likely to an ancient church where Vivaldi performed or Titian painted, or maybe an open square lined with 15th century palazzios.

All roads lead to either the Rialto or Accademia Bridges. Directions are marked by signs on corner buildings, often pointing in all directions. But eventually you will get there, one way or another. And that is the great thing about wandering around Venice. Pick a route - any route. Every alley or constricted lane has a secret beauty; each canal is crossed by a bridge that affords another splendid view.

We had read that the surprising thing about Venice, is that it is exactly as you expect. You aren't aware of all the paintings that have embedded themselves into your brain until you come face to face with the sites. You could spend weeks on any given church, and most were free. We saw five Titians in situ, including his 'The Annunciation' at San Salvador - pop a .20 coin into the machine to really experience this painting. Most of us spend time in museums, and we forget that most portraits, and particularly the religious art, were meant for a specific place. It is very different to see a painting in its proper context, particularly when that context is one of the colourful, marble-pillared churches of Venice, with their ornately painted domes and lush, opulent interiors.

Venice charms with its ramshackle beauty. If any of the individual buildings were next door to you, you'd call the local council for a demolition order. But together, they exude romance and aging dignity. The peak of Venetian power was over 500 years ago, and so they were decaying when Byron swam the Grande Canal. We trod the streets and crossed the bridges, each turn bringing us yet another unexpected delight of architecture and atmosphere. Definitely the best thing to do in Venice - just walk.

Venice has as many souvenir shops as any other tourist trap, but the quality of the merchandise is far superior than in any other city we'd seen. You could spend thousands on the wonders found inside the bookshops, art supply stores, the justifiably renowned Venetian glass shops and the hundreds of carnival mask boutiques. We budgeted about $30.00 on gifts, but we have always postponed the purchase until the last hours of the last day, giving us a purpose to our window shopping while comparing prices. Then, once we know what money we have left, we skitter back to the shops we marked out and blow our last dollars.

We are also such jerks. Lucky ones though. Probably the most famous view is that of the Bridge of Sighs, and we searched through our tourist book to find it, before realising that we were standing right in front of it. We searched the city for a specific view for a friend and found ourselves staring at it when it was the last thing on our minds. Restaurants that we'd marked from the tour books would appear out of nowhere just when we wanted to find them. Venice has that magical kind of quality to it.

We stumbled onto our Hotel the same way. The Noemi was so close to San Marco, that when I stepped outside to have my filthy cigarette break, my first puff was walking over a canal bridge, and my second was spent listening to a tour guide describing the Basilica.

Imagine being in a city with no cars, motocycles and bikes. A human city. Unfortunately, the canals and bridges make getting about by wheelchair extremely difficult, though there are some places to see. The Vaporetto is adapted, and you can disembark at Piazza San Marco, with ramps into the basilica.

Now, we had read so much about eating out in Venice, that we were almost loathe to try it. But we were determined to find a nice, romantic little restaurant at a reasonable price ('impossible,' screamed the guide books). We tried a few recommendations from our book, but they proved far too expensive (obviously, success had gone straight to their menus) and with warnings about 'menu touristico' ringing in our ears, we headed away from the tourist places and dived down the little back alleys. We were rewarded with dinner for two, including wine, for €20 at the Aquila Nera, just off the Rialto area. An even better find was the Arco, a tiny wine house just before the Rialto bridge and stashed away down a little alleyway, where we paid 0.50 cents (euro) for a glass of wine. We went back, often.

It pays to shop around in Venice, and the extra mileage on your feet as you traipse around certainly pays dividends when it comes to your wallet. Many of the restaurants and trattatorias offer menus specifically for tourists, offering overpriced food of variable quality. But the main threat to your wallet - whether in a restaurant, a snack bar or even a pattiserie - comes from the unexpected extras. For example, we found a pattiserie/snack bar next to the Rialto bridge which sold sandwiches, pastries and drinks. It being our last day, we were carefully counting our few remaining euros, and we ordered two sandwiches for €1.30 each, and the burrino, which was significantly cheaper than the birra. We weren't quite specific enough, and ended up asking for 'beer' in English - we were given birra, and nearly blew our remaining budget. The same thing happened at lunch in the Sacro e Profano, where we ordered wine - we were brought a bottle instead of 2 glasses. The lesson is always make sure you specify and ask the price before accepting it. In restaurants, check to see if there is a courtesy or service charge (around 10-15%) included in your bill.

Forty hours may not seem like much to spend in any place, especially one as rich as Venice. But according to our guidebooks, the average tourist spends only six hours in Venice. You can see them rushing about, determined to draw in as much culture as can be crammed down their fast food throats. Compared to them, we felt we were at a leisurely pace. Of course, 40 hours were not enough. We both know that we will return. It was enough to make a connection, to savour for a moment the rich concoction that is this immortal city, but not enough to completely satisfy. And is not that the perfect way to end a journey?