%s5%cbMarco Polo Airport vs. Treviso and other Venice, Italy Transportation Tips

La Serenissima - in her full glory

:-)

'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: If you want to come by plane, depending where your �home airport� is and where you plan to stay, it might be a cheaper option to fly into Marco Polo and not into Treviso. Yes, I am serious about this ! Lufthansa seems to have decided to offer alternatives to Ryanair flights, and if you are flexible with days (what I was), you can get roundtrip tickets including taxes for 88 Euro from major German airports (mine was Frankfurt). As I planned to stay in Venezia anyhow (and not in Mestre or anywhere on the mainland), my costs to get there from my flat at home were 6 Euro (bus to Frankfurt airport) + 44 Euro (= half of the plane ticket) + 6 Euro (Alilaguna) = 56 Euro including taxes and all. Consider this, if you think about how much finally a Ryanair ticket (or any other cheap airline one) will be, adding the transport costs to the respective Ryanair airport and the costs of getting from Treviso airport (40 kms north of Marco Polo) into Venezia.
Maybe by now, also other major airlines follow Lufthansa's calculations.

Plus � leaving from Marco Polo airport, which is located directly at the northern part of the lagoon (if you look closely, you can see the airport in photo 3), will give you the benefit of a first class view of the lagoon. I even thought that our captain must have done this lap of honour just for us passengers ! There was no reason why we could not have head north after take off, but he flew a circle over the lagoon so give us these fantastic views. It was quite late, so the photos did not turn out better. Make sure, you book a seat in the right part of the plane (seats D-F).

Leave a Comment

Website: http://www.veniceairport.it/core/index.jsp?_requestid=390181&language=en

Add to Your Trip Planner | Post a Question | Write a Tip

Visiting Venice?

Read reviews about Venice Hotels

Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.

Transportation: Transport San Marco Airport � Venice

Tip Rating:

Updated by Trekki

on Jun 9, 2007

Alilaguna at Marco Polo - public

boat to Venezia

'Mode': TO
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: Depending where you will stay in Venice, it might be cheaper to take the Alilaguna boat instead of bus and Vaporetto.
I stayed in Ca�Riccio, which is between Fondamenta Nuove and Rialto (easternmost Cannaregio), so walking distance from FN. It cost 6 Euro one way (as of May 2007). The bus to Piazza Roma and Vaporetto to Rialto would also have been 6 Euro (Bus 1 Euro, Vaporetto 5 Euro), but more distance to walk to my hotel.

Alilaguna embarkation point is 5 minutes walk from the airport (photo 2). After having bought the ticket, leave airport building and turn left � follow the signs water taxi and water bus. The one for water taxis (= the expensive option, photo 3) is just 100 m before Alilaguna.

Alilaguna has 3 lines running between airport and the city:
Blue: Murano, Fond. Nuove, San Marco = 45 min past the hour,
Brown: San Marco = 30 min. past the hour,
Red: Murano, Lido, Arsenale, San Marco, Zattere= 15 min past the hour;

Price: 6 Euro to Murano and Fond. Nuove; 12 Euro to San Marco. Ticket office is at the airport (photo 1). For transport from Venezia back to Marco Polo, you can buy the ticket at any of the vaporetto stops with sales booths.

The famous �stamp your ticket before boarding� rule does not apply for this boat, as there is no ticket stamping machine. The Alilaguna people on board will come along and stamp your ticket.

If you take this ride, make sure you will get a seat at the very front (whole seating is covered from what I saw), as then you have the best views. The windows can be opened, so you can take photos without the disturbing window. Haha, no, I didn�t take any, it was raining cats and dogs when I took this boat.

Leave a Comment

Website: http://www.alilaguna.it/?funzione=1&contesto=1&valore=8&modo=6

Add to Your Trip Planner | Post a Question | Write a Tip

Transportation: Vaporettos � the best and cheapest

Tip Rating:

Written by Trekki

on Jun 10, 2007

Ticket stamping machine - make sure

you use it

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: Now I don�t need to explain that Venezia is built �on water� and that there are no busses for transport within the city, but boats. Venezia�s �busses� are the vaporettos; their names derive from the times when they were still running with �steam�. Vaporettos are operated by ACTV; the lines are divided into city-centre routes (travelling along Canal Grance), city-circular routes (travelling around the main islands) and lagoon routes (to the other islands, such as Burano, Lido, etc). The network is marvellous and brings you to any place at the lagoon without much waiting when switching lines.
It definitely pays to buy a travel card, but it depends what your plans are and how long you will be in the city.
ACTV travel cards/passes are issued according to the hour, the maximum one you can get is the 72-hour pass for 30 Euro. Now this is 3 days, and it is only valid for the vaporettos (no other service, such as toilets or museum entries).
Now the Venice Card is another option, if you stay longer than 3 days. It is issued by Venezia tourism board, and available as blue (transport + toilets) and orange (transport + toilets + museums) for 12 or 48 hours or 7 days.

ACTV has recently changed the website, so when looking up timetables, you end up one search button, you�ll end up on Hellovenezia website and can download the full timetable (57 pages, 1,5 MB). Even if it is all in Italian, it is very easy to understand.

One word about the tickets: they need to be stamped just prior to the first vaporetto ride. Ticket machines are yellow (see photo 1) and available at each vaporetto stop.

Oh, and in case, an external Eurodisney tourist comes along and reads this: make sure you understand that vaporettos are not an Eurodisney transport medium but mainly used by locals, so please don�t block the exits and disturb the marinaio from doing his job, when the boat approaches a stop :-)

Leave a Comment

Website: http://www.actv.it/english/navigazione.php?pagina=tariffe_vaporetto

Add to Your Trip Planner | Post a Question | Write a Tip

Transportation: Traghetto � for quick Canal Grande crossing

Tip Rating:

Updated by Trekki

on Jan 12, 2008

Traghettos have the right of way

:-)

by Trekki , 3 more photos

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: Even if Canal Grande has a lot of vaporetto stops, you might like to take a traghetto to cross it. This is also a reasonable way to use a gondola, as they are gondolas, but won�t take anyone on romantic trips from A to B, just cross the Canal Grande as a kind of shortcut. They hold up to 14 people and it is a rule to stand rather than sit. Oh, and they are rowed by 2 gondoliere � one at the front, one at the rear. In the past, Venezia had nearly 50 traghetto �lines� (no idea how I should better call this), but by now only 6 are left (see website I have added below, minus the one at San Samuele, which no longer exisits).
Price for one crossing was 0,70 Euro (May 2007), to be paid directly at the gondoliere before setting over.In the whole Canal Grande, traghettos have the right of way (other than �normal� gondolas), and I often watched fascinated how the big vaporettos stopped to let them pass (photo 1).
Signs �al traghetto� lead way to the stops at the canal, and the waiting area is usually like a small patio, with plants around (photo 2). A green latern (photo 3) signals the stops from the canal side.
And as for so many other things (like professions, etc) that are no longer present in Venezia, the street sign names �Calle del Traghetto� have remained, even if there is no traghetto line crossing at this point (photo 4).

Update, June 18, 2007:
thanks Christine(j) for reminding me to add that Traghetto schedule is usually conforming the shop and restaurant opening hours and is not available on Sundays.

Leave a Comment

Website: http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/127

Add to Your Trip Planner | Post a Question | Write a Tip

Transportation: Gondolas � not only for lovers

Tip Rating:

Updated by Trekki

on Jan 12, 2008

Ah - la gondola :-) and San

Grigorio

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: La gondola � this is of course the most classical way to get transported through Venezia�s canales. I�ve read so often that it is a tourist trap, and even heard Germans ranting badly over the �high prices� while in Venezia (I have to admit that they nearly ended in the canal, and I in jail for throwing tourists into the water).
40 minutes gondola ride cost 80 Euro; the gondola can serve up to 6 people. Well�. it is only a question of perspective. First of all, this is Venezia, a city built on water, and one of the most beautiful cities on the planet. Second, how much would it cost to be driven by a taxi around anywhere for 40 minutes ? Third, now calculate your own income down to the hour � how much are you paid for 40 minutes of work ? But then consider that you would have to pay insurances and all the social security costs on your own. It all is very much based on the point of view. Or who screams scam in Vienna, where a 60 minute Fiaker ride costs around 100 Euro ?
So what do I want to say here ? A gondoliere has to buy his gondola, the prices are very high, around 50.000 Euro. The boat is all handmade, and it takes several weeks to be finished. Given the pollution of the lagoon, a gondola needs to be cleaned from algae much more often than in the past. The season is not all year round � even the hardcore traveller would not likely go on a gondola ride in cold rainy days. And if one ever really watched how these guys and the only female gondoliera of venezia do master moving their boat around � well, this is a real skill, much more skilfull than what I for example do for living (= shoveling papers from A to B and fill out excel charts).
And � it is up to us to treat ourselves with a gondola ride or not. No one forces us to do so. And if we are a party of 6, it is 13 Euro each.
Gondolas are anywhere in town, mostly around Piazza San Marco and along Canal Grande (up to Ponte Rialto). The prices are written on an official paper, which sticks at the front of the gondola.

Leave a Comment

Website: http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/127

Add to Your Trip Planner | Post a Question | Write a Tip

Visiting Venice?

Read reviews about Venice Hotels

Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.

Transportation: Canale driving rules � same as on streets

Tip Rating:

Updated by Trekki

on Jun 22, 2007

One way street - erm, canal

by Trekki , 3 more photos

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: Now as Venezia is built on water, I found it very much fascinating how this is �organised�, compared to the streets we are used to drive on. It is practically the same, they have the same or similar signs as we are used to. There are main canales which have right of way - of course Canal Grande and some other, bigger ones. The smaller canales are often senso unico, which means one-way-canal (photo 1); consequently, passage is forbidden from the other side (photo 3). As they are quite narrow, it is logical that oncoming traffic would make navigation difficult. Most of the small canales are also only navigable for the gondolas (photo 2).
From what I did see, gondolas have the right of way in most of the cases, as even with their enormous navigation skills, it is still tricky to move them along. I have read another fun description of the canal navigation rules: priority to rift over leght (no, no typing error). It means that boats navigate on the right side of the canals, gondolas on the left, as their rudders are on the right side of the boat. And if boat and gondola cross their ways - well, then it is rift or leght, haha :-)
This also means that motor driven boats are mostly not allowed in the small canales, except if they are service boats, such as garbage collection or police or ambulace. Most of the motor driven boats have old tyres mounted at the side so that they won�t scratch or damage the boats that are docked at the houses (photo 4). Another reason why motor traffic is not allowed in the smaller canales is of course to reduce the impact of too much stirred water, thus oxygen level of the water, thus negative impact on the houses� fundament. Keep this in mind please when thinking about to take a motor taxi � most probably they won�t be allowed to bring you directly in front of your hotel.

Leave a Comment

Add to Your Trip Planner | Post a Question | Write a Tip

Transportation: Different lagoon poles for different purpose

Tip Rating:

Updated by Trekki

on Jun 22, 2007

Venezia - lagoon - dama - port side

- rot

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: The driving rules in the lagoon are pretty much the same as within the city limits, but I found that some drivers (mostly motor taxis) kind of set out a bit faster, once they have reached open waters. There is speed limit, however, but not everyone accepts this. The lagoon is laid out with water streets, to avoid chaos and also to keep the boat traffic (thus water stirring and increased oxygen level) a bit more in order. And also, of course, as the lagoon is shallow (otherwise it would not be a lagoon), the water streets are the ones where navigation is safe and where no one would risk to end up on a sand bank.
The water �roads� are marked with poles, and if you look close, you�ll see that these poles are different in size and number. The poles margining the navigable water are small and grouped as 3, the briccole (one is a briccola); photo 4. In addition to the briccole, but in a more �disorganised� way, mede (one is meda), single poles of different size, also mark the course of navigable water (photo 5). In addition, briccole do also have a number, which stands for the "street". All these water ways are given in the navigation charts for the lagoon.
Where two or more main water channels meet, it is recognisable by the dame (one is a dama), 4 poles, the one in the middle being bigger/higher (photo 1 and 2).
In cases where bigger water streets cross, a whole bunch of poles is put together, as in photo 3. This one was taken at Venezia�s northeastern side.
On these first two photos, also the international designations for positioning: port (red) and starboard (green).

Leave a Comment

Add to Your Trip Planner | Post a Question | Write a Tip

Transportation: Water streets are illuminated at night

Tip Rating:

Updated by Trekki

on Jun 14, 2007

Briccola and lamp to guide through

the night