Venice is a fairly small city, at least to see the main tourist spots you only need a few hours or a full day. If you ask us, the ideal would be to spend a night, not run around, enjoy the deserted streets when the sun begins to set and be able to visit some nearby islands that can be reached from Venice.
How to get to Venice
As you know, Venice is a city of canals that make it unique in the world and highly recommended to visit. They can be reached by plane, car or train, the latter option being the most recommended.
By plane
If they arrive by plane it will be to the airport Marco Polo or to that of Treviso in case it is a Low Cost airline. From the airport you have several options to get to the center of Venice.
By water with Alilaguna boats
This service only works at Marco Polo Airport. The average time is 25 minutes and the advantageous point is that you can get to San Marco, so you save the vaporetto that would take you from the Ferrovia Station to the pier closest to your hotel, as long as you don’t want to walk with it. luggage.
Approximately the trip to San Marco costs about 10 euros, which is not bad at all since the vaporetto alone costs 7 and you also gain navigation and views from outside the island.
If you want to travel privately there is the water taxi Obviously more expensive and only convenient if you travel in a group since it does not cost less than 100 euros. The good thing is that it will drop you off at the exact point closest to your hotel, some hotels even have their own dock.
By bus from the airport to Venice
In the case of buses, what I mentioned before happens, they will arrive at Piazzale Roma and from there they must go to the piers to take the vaporetto to the corresponding dock
The price of the bus is 3 euros and you will only spend that if you walk to the hotel, although I assure you that walking through the streets of Venice crossing canals is not pleasant at all.
The journey to the destination is about 20 minutes. If you don’t have luggage, there are some public buses that are the cheapest option but they are obviously not aimed at tourism, the cost is 1 euro.
Arriving by car
If you are going to arrive by car, obviously you cannot enter the center of the island since there is no access to any transport other than water transport. Therefore, in that case you must leave the car in a parking lot before the grand canal. If you travel in high season, the train station in Mestre is a good idea, this way you will avoid the traffic that forms on the Ponte della Libertá. From there, you can take one of the frequent trains that leave to Venice to Santa Lucia station or use the bus service and from there vaporetto.
If you prefer something central, there is a parking lot in Piazzale Roma, in this place you will have a good location but with very high prices and it is very likely that you will find some traffic. The price in that area is between 20 and 30 euros per day.
There are also several cheaper before crossing the Liberty Bridge the price of these is less than €10 a day and from there take the bus to Piazzale Roma.
arrive by train
Finally, the one we used, arriving by train. We did it from Verona since we had arrived in Milan in the afternoon and we preferred to spend the night in Verona to reduce costs.
We arrive at the station St. Lucia and from here we walk a few steps to the Vaporetto stop called Railway. The main lines leave from here.
Taking the vaporetto from Santa Lucia Station – Ferrovia
Line 1 is the most used since it runs along the grand canal, having San Marcos Square or Rialto Bridge among its stops, which are usually the closest to the hotels.
To go to the islands of Murano and Burano you must take line 7 from San Marcos Square.
Prices and schedules
The value, as I mentioned before, is about 7 euros just for one trip. If you are going to use it more than 2 times or are going to visit an island, it is preferable to buy the pass which costs 14 euros. On the first day we only paid for a trip to go to the hotel and on the second we paid for a one-day pass to go to the island and return to the station to go to Milan.
These boats operate between 4:30 in the morning until 00:30, every day.
What places of interest should you see in Venice in 1 day?
As I told you before, thinking about what to see in Venice, a few hours will be enough, so if you only have a day or a few hours, I recommend that you start in San Marco Square, where the main points of Venice are located.
Once you have visited all the points, it is best to save your map or cell phone and get lost in the streets narrow streets, cross little canals and discover all the magic of this unique city. Tourism usually concentrates in the area of the square, so if you start to walk away you will see super deserted streets that lend themselves to many photos. Stopping for lunch and having an ice cream or some coffee definitely has to be part of the tour.
St. Mark’s Square – Departure to see and tour Venice
As well as the Columns of San Marco and San Teodoro next to the entrance to the square on the Grand Canal.
St. Mark’s Basilica
You can also visit the museum and some rooms where you have to pay an entrance fee of 5 euros.
It can be visited every day from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. except on Sundays when it is from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The campanile
By paying 8 euros you can go to the top to have views of all of Venice. We didn’t do it but they told us that it is very good to see what the network of channels that are found throughout the city is like. The hours vary depending on the season but are usually between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Ducal Palace
Starting with the Scala d’Oro (golden staircase leading to the second floor), in the Doge’s Palace you can visit the rooms where the bulldogs lived, the voting rooms, the armory, the patios and the prison.
Continuing the visit you will reach the Maggior Consiglio Room which contains “Paradise”, the largest canvas in the world by Tintoretto.
Once we tour the rooms we can visit the armory, not only weapons but all types of armor, to finish by visiting the dungeons in the basement of the palace. A cold and humid place that makes us think how cruel it would be to spend days there.
We will also cross the famous bridge of sighs which is visited when you go under it with the gondola, something you can do in Venice if you have a second day
It receives this name because it is the path that led those condemned to death since, from the windows, they could see Venice.
The Doge’s Palace can be visited from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and the entrance fee is 25 euros, yes… quite expensive. If you ask us if we have to see the Doge’s Palace in Venice, yes or yes? If you are a lover of art, architecture or history, yes, but perhaps better to save it for another expense.
The Rialto Bridge
To take a photo with the bridge it is better to do it from one of the corners of the canal where as many people do not usually accumulate as on top of the bridge.
A few meters from the bridge is the Rialto market that connects us directly to San Marcos Square. There we will find all kinds of vegetables, fruits, fish, where tourists and locals coexist.
The Rialto Market opens every day from 9 to 12 and almost in front of this market we find the famous hands of Venice that support a building.