Two thrillers, the same few corners of Venice, and a lot of sleight of hand. In The Tourist, from 2010, Angelina Jolie plays Elise, a woman who leads an American math teacher called Frank Tupelo, played by Johnny Depp, from the train to the Hotel Danieli while Interpol and a gangster's men close in. Frank ends up running over the rooftops in his pajamas. In Casino Royale, from 2006, Daniel Craig's James Bond sails into Venice with Vesper Lynd, played by Eva Green, tails her across the city, and watches a Venetian house sink into the Grand Canal. This walk takes you to where those scenes were really filmed, and it's honest about what was a set. It also adds one bonus stop, for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Spoilers ahead for all three films. Because the city sets the order, the story jumps between films, and you'll hear clearly when it does. This is an unofficial walk, not made with or endorsed by any of the studios. It's one of our self-guided walking tours, about 4.3 kilometers from the Arsenale to the Rialto fish market.

Before you set off

The walking itself takes about an hour, so with the stories and a few stops to look around, allow two hours. Venice is flat, but you'll cross plenty of small bridges with steps, so it isn't stroller or wheelchair friendly in every stretch. The waterfront near St Mark's is packed by late morning, so an early start is calmer, and it also gets you to the Rialto market while the stalls are still busy. The market is a morning affair and is normally closed on Sundays and Mondays, so check before you go.

Venice has charged day-trippers an access fee on set days. In 2026 it ran on 60 days between April and July, with lower prices for booking ahead, and overnight guests and children under 14 were exempt. Check cda.ve.it for the current calendar before your visit. Several stops are working buildings: a music school, a foundation and a hotel. Look from outside unless a door is clearly open to visitors, and keep your voice down in the narrow lanes. You start at the Arsenale vaporetto stop on the waterfront and finish beside the Rialto Mercato stop.

Arsenale Gate

You're on Campo de l'Arsenal, facing the great land gate of the Arsenale, the old shipyard of the Venetian Republic. Today it's a navy and Biennale site, and how far inside you can go varies, so enjoy the gate from the campo.

We start with the people hunting Frank. In The Tourist, this is Interpol's base in Venice. From here, a surveillance team tracks every move Elise makes. The man they really want is a fugitive called Alexander Pearce, and a gangster's men want him too. So when Elise steps off the train with a mild American tourist and takes him to her hotel, the watchers have a question on their hands. Who exactly is this man?

Filming in Venice was not simple. Johnny Depp joined the shoot here on the first of March, 2010. The director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, said boats had to be kept slow. A policeman was on set to make sure the wash from speeding boats didn't expose the wooden piles that hold up the palazzi. That rule shaped the film's boat chase, which is slow and towed rather than roaring. So when you see a leisurely chase on screen, that's Venice protecting itself.

Hold on to Interpol's watchers. They'll be on Frank's trail all walk long. Right now, though, Elise is bringing her new American friend to one of the most famous hotels in the world.

Walk back to the waterfront and turn right, heading west along the Riva degli Schiavoni, with the lagoon on your left. Cross the little bridges and look for the Danieli name, a short way before the Doge's Palace. About nine minutes.

Hotel Danieli

You're on the Riva degli Schiavoni, in front of the Danieli, at number 4196. Look up at the old palace front. That's Palazzo Dandolo, built in the late 14th century.

In The Tourist, this is where Elise invites Frank to stay with her. He's an ordinary man suddenly in a grand Venetian hotel with a stunning stranger, and he has no idea that half of Venice is watching the windows. Here's the first trick, though. The famous arrival, when they glide up to the hotel's water entrance by boat, wasn't filmed at the Danieli at all. It was filmed at another palace on the Grand Canal, and we'll stand outside it later. How much of the real hotel's interior appears on screen isn't clear. One guide says only the lobby, so don't believe anyone who tells you the suite was shot here.

The real story of this building is grand enough. In 1824 a man named Giuseppe Dal Niel turned the palace into a hotel, and it took his name, which became Danieli. Its guest list reads like a library shelf: Charles Dickens, Richard Wagner, John Ruskin, and the writers George Sand and Alfred de Musset.

The hotel has had a new chapter recently. After a restoration of Palazzo Dandolo and its neighbor, Palazzo Casa Nuova, it reopened in summer 2026 as a Four Seasons hotel, still under the Danieli name.

Now we jump ahead in Frank's story, to the moment it goes badly wrong. Keep walking west along the waterfront, cross the Ponte della Paglia beside the Doge's Palace, and continue into the Piazzetta. The long library faces the palace across the square. About three minutes.

Marciana Library

The Marciana Library on the Piazzetta, Venice

You're in the Piazzetta, the square that runs from St Mark's Square down to the water. On one side is the Doge's Palace. Facing it is the long, arcaded library designed by Sansovino, the Marciana. Its museum rooms open with the St Mark's museums ticket.

We've skipped forward in The Tourist. By now Frank has escaped across the rooftops in his pajamas and been arrested. In the film, this library plays the Venetian police station where he's questioned. An American math teacher, in a foreign police station, with no idea why everyone is so interested in him. You'll see where that rooftop run ends at our last stop.

Now switch films. Walk down to the water's edge between the two tall columns and look out across St Mark's Basin. In Casino Royale, after the poker game, Bond arrives in Venice with Vesper on a sailboat. The shot takes in San Giorgio Maggiore across the water, the bell tower behind you and the domes of the Salute, and then the boat turns up the Grand Canal. It's the calm before the storm.

The boat was real. She was the Spirit, a 54-foot yacht built by Spirit Yachts in Suffolk, in England, and her mast had to come down to clear the bridges. You may hear that she was the first sailing boat up the Grand Canal in three hundred years. That has only ever been reported, so treat it as a nice claim rather than a fact.

From here, Bond's Venice turns into a chase. Walk back up the Piazzetta into St Mark's Square and cross to its far north-west corner. Go through the arcades of the Procuratie Vecchie, the long building along the square's north side, to the little gondola basin behind them. About four minutes.