Venice: Getting there & around

Orientation

Venice is built on 117 small islands and has some 150 canals and 409 bridges. Only three of the bridges cross the Grand Canal whilst a fourth, designed by Calatrava, has been interminably delayed. It is difficult to predict when or if it will finally be put in place, even the concept has become something of a Venetian tragi-comedy. The historic centre is divided into six sestieri (quarters): San Marco, Dorsoduro, San Polo, Santa Croce, Cannaregio and Castello. It covers a deceptively small area - if you don't get lost (which you will!), walking from Cannaregio in the northwest to Dorsoduro in the south should take only 30 minutes. The city's 'main street' is the Grand Canal, which passes most of the districts as it twists along the length of Venice from the railway station to San Marco.

Venice goes well beyond the six sestieri. The shallow waters of the Laguna Veneta are dotted by a crumbling mosaic of islands, including Murano, Burano and Torcello. Acting as a breakwater to the east is the long and slender Lido di Venezia, stretching south for some 10km (6mi) to the similarly narrow Pellestrina. This in turn dribbles down to the sleepy mainland town of Chioggia, marking the southern-most point of the lagoon. Spreading inland from the Laguna Veneta is the rather humdrum industrial town of Mestre, where the day-to-day 'life' of the city increasingly takes place. Mestre's southern half is occupied by Porto Marghera and its massive petro-chemical works.

Getting There

• bus

  At the lower end of the luxury spectrum you can arrive in Venice by bus, deposited at Piazzale Roma. It's marginally cheaper than train, but much less comfortable. The bus station is on the southern side of the Grand Canal.

• car

  Driving into Italy, the main points of entry are the Mont Blanc tunnel from France at Chamonix (reopened in March 2002 following the March 1999 fire), the Grand St Bernard tunnel from Switzerland and the Brenner Pass from Austria. Once in Italy, the A4 is the quickest way to reach Venice from east or west, connecting Turin with Trieste, and passing through Milan and Mestre. Once over the Ponte della Libertà from Mestre, cars must be left at one of the huge, hideously expensive car parks in Piazzale Roma or on the island of Tronchetto.

• train

  Direct trains call a halt at Venice's Stazione di Santa Lucia (known in Venice simply as the ferrovia) from Padua, Verona, Milan, Bologna, Switzerland and France. The Stazione di Santa Lucia is in the northwest of town, at the end of the Ponte della Libertà. Paris-Venice takes 9.5 hours, including the change at Milan. If you're coming from the east (Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and beyond) you may need to change at Trieste, though there are direct trains from Budapest and Bucharest. The legendary Orient Express runs between Venice and London via Verona, Zurich and Paris twice weekly from March to November.

• plane

  Marco Polo Airport is linked to Piazzale Roma in Venice by ATVO buses, a 20-minute trip that passes by Mestre train station. You can also catch ATVO city bus No 5. By boat, the Alilaguna hydrofoil runs from the airport to Venice or the Lido and Murano, or there are (more expensive) water taxis that can drop you at Piazzetta di San Marco. Land taxis are just as efficient and less costly.

  From San Guiseppe Airport, buses to/from Piazzale Roma take 1 hour and 15 minutes. If no buses appear, you can catch local bus No 6 to the main train station in Treviso and proceed to Venice by rail.

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Getting Around

• bus

  Regular buses (yes, they do exist) run from Piazzale Roma to Mestre and other mainland destinations, but it's probably the least exciting way to get around the city.

• water taxi

  Vaporetto (water bus) is the quintessential method of getting around Venice; you won't find too many public transport routes as unforgettable as vaporetto No 1's trip along the Grand Canal. Get yourself a travel pass to do the vaporetto thing - single tickets don't come cheap.

• car

  Obviously, don't bring the rental car to Venice - you'll just be paying to leave it in a carpark for the duration. Taxis - the regular four-wheeled variety - do operate from Piazzale Roma.

• walking

  Walking in Venice can be a rewarding pursuit. Be prepared to get lost in the timeless backstreets, dead-end alleys, canalside fondamente and deserted squares that make up the real Venice.

• bicycle

  Cycling is officially banned in the lagoon city - you'll see the sense of it as you traverse its narrow, choked walkways.

• small boat

  The classic gondola ride with the opera-warbling operator is pretty touristy and expensive but the traghetto is a commuter gondola that crosses the Grand Canal at strategic points. It's quite a balance test for newbies as you have to stand. Water taxis (motorboats) are almost as expensive as gondolas, but their pilots don't wear stripy shirts and sing 'O Sole Mio'.

• Disabled Travellers

  People with disabilities have not been completely left out of what is, after all, a fairly unfriendly environment for wheelchair users or those with other mobility problems.

  A map available from APT offices has areas of the city shaded in yellow to indicate that they can be negotiated without running into one of Venice's many bridges. Some of the bridges are equipped with lifts ( montascale ), which are marked on the map. You can get hold of a key to operate these lifts from the tourist offices.

  Most of the important vaporetto lines allow wheelchair access. Those that don't are Nos 13, 20, 51 and 52. Five bus lines are adapted for wheelchair users: No 2 (Piazzale Roma to Mestre train station), No 4 (Piazzale Roma to Corso del Popolo in Mestre), No 5 (Piazzale Roma to Marco Polo airport), No 6 (tronchetto and Piazzalr Roma to the mainland) and No 15 (a mainland service running between Marco Polo airport and Mestre).

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