Venice: Walking or Vaporetto?
 

Hi everyone,<BR><BR>Next week my wife and I will be in Venice for two days/nights. Our hotel is close to the train station. Would you recommend (primarily) walking or vaporetto to see the city and the sites? (And if vaporetto is better, is it better enough to merit buying a three day pass even though we'll only be there two days?<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Jim

You'll do a bit of both. It's well worth taking vaparetto no. 82 (or no. 1, which is slower) down the Grand Canal to St. Marks. Likely, you'll find the majority of time will be on foot. I wouldn't recommend buying the 3-day pass.<BR>

You would have to take a vaporetto to get to San Marco to do some walking.

The vaporetto 3-day ticket is quite cheap at 18 euros. I wouldn't do without it.

You can buy a 24-hour pass. We arranged our Venice itinerary to do all the sight-seeing for which we needed vaporetti for a 24-hour period. Worked fine.

You will need to take the vaporetto to get to St. Marco's Square. You will end us walking more, though, because you will want to explore Venice. (YOu may even get lost, which isn't so bad.)<BR>I would suggest that you take the vaporetto at night back to your hotel so that you can see the lights along the Grand Canal. We didn't do that because we started walking to find restaurants and by the time we ended our meals we were tired and just returned to our hotel. A pass isn't so bad though even if you are there for 2 days, - - it is cheaper to by the pass and then you would just have it handy.<BR>Have a great time.

You'll want to do both!!<BR><BR>Note which vaporetto comes nearest your hotel. So when you walk and walk and walk into the city, if you get tired or lost you can easily catch one back to where you started (one note learned the hard way !! vaporetto numbered lines run two directions i.e., the 52(?) runs both out to the Lido and the other direction back to the train station.<BR><BR>Vaporettos are not very expensive so either single ticket or the pass whichever seems easiest at the time should do you fine (another note you stick it in the meter to stamp it yourself before you hop on the boat).

Hi Jim. The two vaporetto lines that run the length of the Grand Canal are a great way to see that part of Venice -- and, as others have noted, an expedient way to get to Piazza San Marco from your hotel -- but, for the other parts away from the Grand Canal, you'll be doing a lot of walking. And you'll love it, as Venice is a wonderful city for walking.

You can walk from the train station to Piazza San Marco. I assume your hotel is on or right off of Lista di Spagna. If you follow di Spagna to S. Leonardo, you will eventually run into the Rialto Bridge. From here, you would follow the sign, PER SAN MARCO --&gt;, and end up in the piazza. To get back to your hotel, you could take the vaporetto from Riva Schiavoni, marked FEROVIA. This will let you off in front of the train station. I have done this many times.

Buying the pass saves the hassle of buying a ticket each trip. Do it for the convenience.<BR><BR>We had fun on last trip to Venice simply getting on the vaparetto and working ourselves to the bow of the boat as people got off. This did not take long. From that vantage point we sat back and enjoyed Venice passing by us. Did the round trip and then got on and off as we wanted to and explored different areas, even out to Murano. A great way to see this city.<BR><BR>Walking is great in Venice but gets a lot easier in the evening when all the hoards of day trippers get on their boats and in their cars and depart. Then the city comes to life and the crowds are gone.

Suggest a combination of what John G. offers as we stayed at Hotel Principe next to train station & Scalzi Bridge. Get on Vaporetto "water bus" #1 or #82 at train station dock named Ferrovia. From there ride about 10 minutes to Rialto Bridge, get off and walk about 10 minutes to San Marco. You have a combination of seeing the Grand Canal to Rialto, and walking streets and viewing shops from Rialto to San Marco all within 25 minutes.