The Bar at Aman sits in the piano nobile of Palazzo Papadopoli overlooking the hotel's Grand Canal garden, with bar manager Antonio Ferrara on a seasonal cocktail list and a 50 Best Discovery listing alongside a small cicchetti programme.
Tip: The garden opens for cocktails from midday in warm months; the indoor salon takes over October through April. The Venice Cocktail Week and Architecture Biennale slots fill weeks ahead.
Address: Calle Tiepolo 1364, 30125 Venezia, Venice
Metro Venezia Club has run on Via Cappuccina in Mestre since 2012 as the Venice metro area's main gay sauna and recreation club, with a Finnish sauna, whirlpool, dark room, video room, cafe bar, solarium and a roof terrace.
Tip: Historic Venice has no standing gay bar; Metro on the mainland is the scene. Five hundred metres from Mestre station, ten minutes from Piazzale Roma by tram. ANDDOS card at the door.
Trash and Chic has run as Venice's longest standing LGBTQ pop up since 2006, currently using the Molocinque warehouse in Marghera two or three Saturdays a month from September through May, with drag, dancers and a mixed Veneto crowd that travels in.
Tip: Check the Facebook page for the dated calendar; the venue is Molocinque most months but the event also travels to Padova. Cab back to historic Venice is the only late option.
Caffè Florian has run under the Procuratie Nuove of Piazza San Marco since 1720, the oldest continuously operating cafe in Italy, with the resident Caffè Florian Concerto Orchestra playing every evening on the square from spring through autumn.
Tip: The orchestra surcharge is six euros per drink when the band plays; sit at an outside table for the music, the inside salon is cheaper but mute. Closed days in low winter for the orchestra.
Gran Caffè Quadri has anchored the Procuratie Vecchie side of Piazza San Marco since 1775, founded by the Corfiote merchant Giorgio Quadri, with the resident 121 St Mark's Band playing on the square from April through late October.
Tip: The terrace tables sit directly across from the basilica; the orchestra plays through aperitivo and dinner. A spritz with the music surcharge runs around twenty euros total.
Al Timon anchors the Cannaregio aperitivo strip on Fondamenta degli Ormesini, with a tight inside counter, sidewalk tables on the fondamenta and two wooden boats tied to the canal that the bar invites guests to sit on through the warm months.
Tip: The boats are the seat to get on a summer night; they fill by 19:30. Natural wine list by the glass, cicchetti at the counter, no reservation.
Vino Vero opened on Fondamenta della Misericordia in Cannaregio in 2014 with one of the deepest natural wine lists in Italy, a tight cicchetti bar and a canal side crowd that holds the fondamenta past midnight through the warm months.
Tip: Ask for a Friulano or Soave off the natural list; the by the glass rotation is the deal. The fondamenta outside is the room past 22:00 in summer.