Getting around Venice

Vaporetto water buses, water taxis, gondolas, and walking

Venice is the only city in Italy where you will not be constantly menaced by speeding Fiats, barelling buses, clattering trams, and swarms of scooters because Venice is the only city in Italy with absolutely no cars. It's awfully hard to drive on canals, see.

There are only two ways to get around Venice: on foot, or by boat. Both are painfully slow; only one requires you to buy ridiculously overpirced tickets.

Feets don't fail me now

Venice is a walking city. With the exception of taking the vaporetto (water bus; details to follow) between the train station and your hotel, on long hauls, or to the outlying islands—or ponying up big bucks for a private taxi acquei (water taxi; also detailed below)—you'll be walking everywhere in Venice. There simply is no other way to get around.

Buy yourself a very good map (that single sheet they hand out for free at the tourist office is good for general orientation, but not for finding your way around). Then accept the fact that, even with the map, you are going to get lost, frequently and repeatedly. The sooner you learn to take that in stride and actually enjoy it, the sooner you will begin to fall in love with Venice.

To help tourists on a tight schedule, quick routes between the key spots—San Marco, Accademia, Rialto (bridge), Ferrovia (train station)—have long been established. You'll see little yellow signs peppering almost every intersection in teh touristed areas to point sightseers in the right direction. Sometimes there wil be signs to the same place pointing in two opposite directions. This is both perfectly fine (both ways will eventually get you there) and a perfect example of how convoluted Venice's streets truly are.

Gondolas & traghetti

Technically the gondola is a mode of transporation, and technically you might find a gondolier willing to ferry you from point A to point B, but in practice these most famous of Venetian boats operate as supremely overpriced tourist mini-cruises, not as a viable means of public transportation. I know you'll take ride in one anyway, but it won't be to get anywhere.

There are gondola-like boats that do serve as public transport. They're called traghetti, and for the bargain price of €0.50 they ferry people back and forth across the Grand Canal, which is otherwise spanned by only three bridges. » Full Story

The water bus

Vaporetto tickets
Since a biglietto (ticket) for the vaporetto or the is priced according to how far you go, it's best to buy them from the kiosk at the dock when you go to take the trip. The average fare for puttering about central Venice is a steep €6. Unless you're going to use the vaporetti a lot, the unlimited-ride biglietto turistico passes aren't worth it, but for the record they come in varying lengths of time from 12 hours (€13) and 24 hours (€15) up to 3 days (€30).

The vaporetto (www.actv.it) is a public ferry service that is for all intents and purposes the bus network of Venice. The back of the map the tourist office hands out has a route plan. The most useful vaporetto is line 82, which chugs regularly from the train station on a majestic sweep down the Grand Canal, stopping five times (including at the Rialto bridge and the Accademia) en route to the San Marco stop, which is just off Piazzetta San Marco in the Giardinetti Reali. Line 1 is a commuter line that follows a similar route but takes longer and makes more stops.

In summer, lines 3 and 4 also run from the station to S. Zaccaraia, which is just past the Doge's Palace off the other side of Piazzetta San Marco. Line 52 makes the same trip the long way around the Dorsoduro (i.e. not along the Grand Canal).

Water taxis

Motoscafi or taxi acquei provide an excellent, if expensive, way to get you and your luggage down the canal without the headache of crowds on public vaporetti. You may not be the only passenger, as captains take on as many travelers as can fit. They also charge a steep fare—€45 ($66) from the airport; €41 ($60) to get from Piazzale Roma to Piazza San Marco. The basic rate, good for the first seven minutes, is a whopping €14 ($20), going up in €0.25 (37¢) increments every 15 seconds thereafter.

Honestly, the only water taxis I've ever used are to get to and from the airport—it's a bit pricier than the airport bus, but you can't beat arriving in Venice by boat for sheer romance (plus, the bus lets you off in Piazzale Roma, so you would still have to catch a vaporetto to get you and youir luggage to your hotel).