Travelling to Venice?
Venice is built on millions of tree trunks driven into the mud of a lagoon: the timber, starved of oxygen underwater, doesn’t rot but mineralises, and there it still is fifteen hundred years later holding up the stone. It’s some hundred and eighteen islands stitched by four hundred bridges and not a single car. The practical consequence is that here everything, absolutely everything, moves on foot or by water.
VCE · TSF
What to see in Venice
8 ROUTESOur routes, not a list of everything. Places that have been there for centuries: no opening times or prices, which go stale.
- 01
Venice in a day
9 hA basilica with eight thousand square metres of gold mosaic and four horses looted from Constantinople in 1204.St Mark's Basilica · The Doge’s Palace and the Bridge of Sighs · Rialto and the Grand Canal · Dorsoduro, to get awayRead the full guide - 02
A weekend in Venice
20 hThe second day is for the lagoon: a village of coloured houses painted so fishermen could find it in fog.Saturday: the centre · Saturday night: the bacari · Sunday: Murano and Burano · Sunday afternoon: the empty VeniceRead the full guide - 03
What to see in Venice
14 hGondolas are deliberately asymmetric: the left side is longer so that rowing from one side drives them straight.The gondola, deliberately crooked · Acqua alta and the MOSE · The Scuola Grande di San Rocco · The Biennale and the ArsenaleRead the full guide - 04
Eating and drinking in Venice
3 hA glass of wine is called a “shade” because it was sold in the campanile’s shade, the stall moving with the sun.Cicchetti and the ombra · Sarde in saor and the salt cod · The spritz, invented around here · Where not to eat, and whyRead the full guide - 05
Where to stay in Venice
1 hHere house numbers run by district, not by street, and reach six thousand. They’re no use for navigating.San Marco · Cannaregio · Dorsoduro · Castello and the Giudecca · Mestre, the mainland optionRead the full guide - 06
Day trips from Venice
10 hA chapel painted entirely by Giotto, entered in fifteen-minute slots through an airlock that dries you out.Padua and the Scrovegni Chapel · Verona · Vicenza and Palladio’s villas · The Prosecco hillsRead the full guide - 07
From Venice’s airports to the centre
1 hVenice has no streets for cars, so every bus ends in the same place: where the road runs out.The bus, quick and cheap · The Alilaguna, which arrives by water · If you land in Treviso · The water taxi, the indulgenceRead the full guide - 08
Venice: practical tips
1 hThe access fee isn’t always charged: only on certain days, only by day, and only if you don’t sleep in the city.The access fee, in detail · Bridges, suitcases and timing · The vaporetto, and what isn’t done · When to come · Mobile dataRead the full guide
Airport to city centre
4 OPTIONSThe real options, with what actually decides it: which terminal it leaves from and where it drops you. Fares and timetables live with the operator, who keeps them current.
- BusATVO Express / ACTV 5 AerobusVCE → Piazzale Roma (final de la carretera)The fastest and cheapest from Marco Polo: about twenty to twenty-five minutes to Piazzale Roma, with frequent departures. Mind what Piazzale Roma means: it’s where the road ends and the car-free city begins. From there it’s either the vaporetto or walking with your case over stepped bridges.20-25 minFares and timesATVO / ACTV
- BusAlilaguna (autobús acuático)VCE → San Marco, Rialto, Fondamente Nove y MuranoIt’s a boat, not a road bus: it leaves from the airport dock (about seven minutes’ walk from the terminal, or by travelator) and comes into the city across the lagoon, dropping you directly at several points in the centre without going via Piazzale Roma. It takes between an hour and an hour and a half, considerably longer than the bus, but it saves the change and the arrival is memorable.60-90 minFares and timesAlilaguna
- BusATVO desde TrevisoTSF → Piazzale RomaTreviso is some forty kilometres away and is the airport of several low-cost airlines, so plenty of people land here thinking they’ve arrived in Venice. The ATVO bus links to Piazzale Roma and the timetable is coordinated with flights. Check it, because the frequency is far lower than at Marco Polo.·Fares and timesATVO
- TaxiVCE · TSF → Puerta del hotel (el acuático) o Piazzale Roma (el de carretera)There are two different taxis here and it pays not to confuse them. The water taxi leaves from the Marco Polo dock and is the only transport that drops you at your hotel door if the hotel faces a canal: it’s by far the most expensive thing in the city, and for many it’s worth doing once. The road taxi can only reach Piazzale Roma, like any car.·Fares and timesTaxi
VIP lounges in Venice
1Before you fly, or on the layover. Pay per visit, whatever airline.