Might I have figured out what area to stay in Venice? Dorsoduro/Campo Santa Margherita
 

Working on the wonderful suggestions from Fodors posters and Slowtrav posters.

Today I purchased another DK Eyewitness book, Top 10 Venice.

In reviewing the sections I came across the description of the Dorsoduro and Campo Santa Margherita areas. When I was speaking with my father the other day he said he had just gotten off the phone with a friend of his that had just returned from Venice. The friend suggested my dad would like this area.

My father lives in NYC, lower manhattan. Near the financial district. He loves the activity that is in this area. It is a thriving, alive area. He enjoys going to the park, reading and people watching.

Does this sound like a good area to look for a B&B or pensione?

In my opinion, Dorsoduro is probably the best area to stay in in Venice, for the reasons you have mentioned.

If your mother insists on staying in an establishment that has "pensione" in its name, then you can look into the Pensione Accademia. I think La Calcina, on the far side of Dorsoduro, also still calls itself a pensione. I seem to recall, though, that the official category "pensione" was abolished some many years ago in Italy. The places that still have it in their name do so for "historical" reasons. i.e., they were started as pensioni decades ago.

Thank you Eloise!

Yayy. I'm finally making progress on the Venice chapter. I will concentrate finding lodging in this area.

The places you mention are on my long list as they have been suggested by others. (To those of you who posted suggestions in other threads, I thank you also for the help.)

I will post back here as soon as I narrow down my list.

Thanks again.

I have gone brain dead at the moment. Trying to map the distance/time to travel between Arsenale area and Campo Santa Margherita. Interested via walking and via public transportation.

I have a map with distance scale but pages of the book are in the middle. The scale is so small anyway that I need my reading glasses and I can't find them. I tried mapquest, didn't work.

The vaporetto No. 1 from Accademia to Arsenale takes 15 minutes; from Santa Maria della Salute, only 10 minutes.

It's walkable, I suppose, but why would you want to?

Eloise,

Your the best.

Do you just know this from experience or do you have a web site that can give me times and distances like this? I did a google search with the terms but of course results were a mishmash.

Well, I didn't invent it (smiley face).

Here is the Web site:

http://www.actv.it/eng/home.php

(I use the Italian version myself, but I assume the English version will give you the same information.)

Accademia and Salute are the last two stops on the Dorsoduro side of the Grand Canal.

Cool site. I can't figure out how to use it exactly but eventually I'm sure I can do it.

I did click on the link thingy. For the heck of it I clicked on the link for Town of Venice.

I found more webcams! Venice sure isn't active at the moment. Of course it is a quarter to 4 in the AM isn't it?

http://english.comune.venezia.it/tur...dgets/home.asp