Go wander in Fucking Bruges instead. It isn’t as big you can see all in the same time you spent in Venice, the buildings are as old and actually properly maintained. The canals stink less than the lagune in Venice and there’s many less rats.
The piazza is less impressive, granted, but the Belfort tower is a nice thing to visit nevertheless.
While in recent years cruise visitors have increased and the current mayor has launched a campaign to limit the number of day visitors, it is much less hectic too. And cheaper.
Lastly... you have plenty of Belgian beers to explore and awesome cakes and even ice cream which can compete with Italian gelaterias. Oh... and it's also called called the Venice of the North.
Alternatively go to Utrecht in the Netherlands. One of the leading cities in climate emergency solutions too. And an awesome hospitality sector. But it's "public secret" tourist element is about to burst.
You mean like this? ;D
Because of being robbed in Amsterdam, our Belgian visit was cut short and we only had a few hours in Brugge, but it was nice. When we were there, it was a bit of a ghost town as it was a little earlier in the year and the central European holidays handed started.
There was a lovely little chocolate shop we enjoyed :)
The closest I got to Utrecht was a train ride through from Amsterdam on a work trip on the east side of the country.
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