Venice

I've been to Venice twice - once in 2018 and once in 2025. The first time we only stayed for one day and one night. The second time we stayed for two nights and had one and a half days to see the sites. For the first visit we arrived by plane, and the second time by train. Whether you arrive by plane or train, you will need to end up on the island of Venice. When purchasing a train ticket, select the San Lucia train station, which is on the island of Venice. Here are a few tips from my experience visiting Venice:

1) get a Venezia Unica City Pass. The website is here: Venice City Pass

On the home page there is a description of the services offered, and then at the top of the page select "Buy." You can choose which pass you'd like to purchase. For our most recent trip we just purchased the transportation pass, the ACTV time limited tickets. We bought the 2 day transport for 35 euros. This is definitely worth the price! It allows you to ride around on all the vaporetto around Venice, and also includes the nearby islands. I printed my voucher off rather than only having it on my phone, in case my phone battery had died before I arrived. If arriving by train, when you get off the train, head straight for the exit to the Santa Lucia train station. Once exiting, you will see directly in front of you the ACTV small building. In front of the building are machines that look like vending machines - these are ticket machines. You will enter the PNR code from your voucher of your online purchase and the machine will print off your pass. To use the pass, there are scan machines at the entrance to each vaporetto stop. Line 2 takes you in a circular route through the Grand Canal to most places you would want to visit as a tourist, including St. Mark's Square. When getting on vaporetto 2, be sure that the boat is facing in the direction you want to go. The boats come only minutes apart, so don't be worried if you miss the boat. Some of the stops have digital signs that tell you which boat is coming at what time. If you want to visit Murano, which I highly recommend, there are a few options for boats. We took 4.2 from the Santa Marta stop because it was the closest stop to our hotel. It took about a half hour to reach Murano. We got off at the Colonna stop, which is the first Murano stop, because we wanted to walk all the way through Murano and see all of the different glass shops and factories. Then we walked back to Colonna (although you can get on at any stop in Murano) and rode the 4.1 back to Venice, because 4.1 goes in the opposite direction of 4.2. You can also ride the boat 3 or 12 to reach Murano, although these weren't scheduled as often as 4.1 and 4.2. Each time it took only about 30 minutes to get between the two. Be sure to scan your pass each time you get on a boat, because if they check tickets and you have not scanned your pass, you will receive a large fine. Some stops to take note of are:

* P. Roma stop is the bus station

* Ferrovia stop is the train station

* S. Zaccharia (or S. Marco S. Zaccharia) is Saint Mark's Square

* Rialto is the Rialto Bridge

* Fdte Nove is the most direct stop to Murano, it is the last stop boats take before heading in the direction of Murano, stopping at Cimitero on the way (cemetery - San Michelle island, where the dead of Venice are buried)

Most tourist attractions are around, or within walking distance of St. Mark's square. If you get on vaporetto line 2 and ride it until the S. Zaccharia stop, you can get pretty much anywhere you'd want to see. There are plenty of souvenir shops and places to eat near there. It is very helpful to download the AVM Venezia app on your phone. The app allows you to enter your destination and it gives you a variety of options for which boats to take to get there. It also allows you to look at the timetables of the different lines.

2) If this is your first time in Venice and you are arriving at night, I recommend contacting your hotel about arranging transport to the hotel. It cost 80 euros for the hotel to arrange a taxi for us (20 euros to the hotel and 60 euros in cash to the taxi driver), but it was well worth it. Since we would be arriving at night, and since the streets all look very similar to each other and are a bit like a maze, we didn't want to have to wander around in the dark looking for our hotel. GPS is nice, but I didn't want to depend on it when arriving at night. The taxi driver used WhatsApp to communicate with us and send us his location. He was there when our train arrived, and he waited for us to go to the ACTV machines and pick up our city pass before meeting him right beside the ACTV building and helping us into his boat taxi. He drove us as far as he could, but since the tide was high, his boat wouldn't fit underneath the bridges to the hotel. Our taxi driver had already communicated with the hotel and a concierge was standing at the dock waiting for him to drop us off. She then walked us to the hotel. It was stress-free and I was so grateful that we had taken that extra step and paid that extra money when we first arrived. Once we knew where our hotel was and had wandered around the neighborhood a little bit, it was very easy to navigate on our own, including at night.

3) The first time we stayed in Venice we stayed at an Airbnb. It was a good price and was fine, but I didn't know that in Italy sometimes you have to turn on the hot water yourself (nor did I know how to do it), so I took a cold shower that morning. Afterwards my son, who lived in Italy for 2 years, turned on the hot water. The second time we visited Venice, we stayed at the Hotel Tiziano. Here is their website: Hotel Tiziano

I very highly recommend this hotel. It is not more expensive than staying at a hotel in the United States. The staff is very friendly and helpful and the breakfast was varied and delicious. It was served from 7 am to 10 am, which allows for variance in schedules. Our room was as you would imagine a Venice hotel would be - quaint and homey. The bathroom is modernized. The bedroom furniture is old but comfortable. I loved it! It is an 8 minute walk to the Santa Marta vaporetto stop, which is where you would catch boat 4.2 towards Murano or towards the bus station or train station, and a 10 minute walk from the San Basilio vaporetto stop, which is where you would go to get the #2 vaporetto boat to visit the tourist spots. The hotel is in a mostly residential neighborhood, so there aren't a lot of options for eating nearby, and there aren't any shops. It is actually near a couple of universities so we saw a lot of students congregating, especially at night. It is a safe and quiet area. I would definitely stay there again the next time I visit Venice.

4) Most important sites to see, in order of highest recommendation (I will write about each in detail below):

* St. Mark's Square - it is free to enter and walk around the square.

* St. Mark's Campanile - ride the lift to the top and see the city from up high. Purchase tickets online.

* St. Mark's Basilica - purchase skip the line tickets online

* Doge's Palace - we took the secret itineraries tour, which allows you to see places that you would not be able to see with a regular entrance ticket

* Rialto Bridge - it is free to walk across, although you can also do some shopping on the bridge

* Museo della Musica (Venice Museum of Music) - only 2 euro to visit, and you don't need a reservation

* ride the vaporetto on the full loop of line 2, which would take about an hour but is a great way to see all of the Grand Canal, as well as the lower half of Venice from the water

* attend a night concert. Since Venice was Vivaldi's home, the Four Seasons is usually performed in the evenings by more than one orchestra. These concerts are worth the money!

* Murano - the island that specializes in glass production

* Minich Bridge - I wanted to see this bridge because the bridge right beside it was used in the filming of Mission Impossible and also in Spiderman Far From Home.

St. Mark's Square

St. Mark's Square is an iconic place to visit, and perhaps the most famous spot in Venice. While standing in the square, you can admire the outside of the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's Basilica, the Campanile bell tower, and the Moors ringing the bell. Try to be there on the hour so you can see the moors ring the bell. The bell and Moors were made in 1497. Their bodies are hinged at the waist so that they can twist to hit the bell. They are probably my favorite thing about the square.

It is very expensive to eat on the Square, but it is totally worth doing one time, especially when the orchestras are playing. When we visited Venice during March, there weren't orchestras playing - they must have found it too cold. But when we visited in May, we did enjoy listening to the orchestras while we ate. It was fun to look around the square and admire the buildings as well as watching the people. We ordered margherita pizzas at one of the restaurants and they brought a wire cover for our plates to keep the seagulls from stealing our food.

Campanile on St. Mark's Square

Going up the Campanile to view St. Mark's Square and Venice is a definite must! Here is the official website to purchase tickets, which are 12 euro:

Campanile Bell Tower

About a dozen people ride the lift up together to the top, you look around as long as you want and take pictures, and then ride the lift back down when you're ready. The lift just continues going up and down continuously, so you don't have to wait to go back down. The view from the top is well worth the price of admittance! And having a reservation is definitely a good idea so that you can for sure get in. The address for the bell tower is P.za San Marco, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy.

St. Mark's Basilica

It only costs 6 euro to visit the basilica, or 15 euro including the horses of St. Mark's, and is well worth the visit. I think the added amount to see the horses is worth it, because the horses are my favorite part of St. Marks. When you go upstairs to see the horses, both the originals that are inside, as well as the replicas that are now outside, you may also admire the beautiful view of the Square and surrounding area. You can see the Moors & the bell from a much higher view. You also have a better view of the Doge Palace from up there. The official ticket website is here:

St Mark's Basilica

St. Mark's Basilica was built in the 11th century. The horses were brought from Constantinople in 1204 after the fourth crusade and were part of the spoils of battle. They were looted by Napoleon in 1797 and then returned in 1815. Some believe the horses are as old as the 2nd century AD. The heads of the horses were cut off in order to transport them, and then the collars were added to the horses when they arrived in 1204 so that it wouldn't be noticeable that the heads had been severed and re-attached. The official address of Saint Mark's Basilica is Basilica di San Marco, San Marco, 328, 30124 Venice.

Doge's Palace

The Doge's Palace is also known as Palazzo Ducale. The Doge used to be the ruler of Venice. He resided in the palace, but it was also used as a jail and other government offices. It was first built in 810 and then rebuilt in 1340. My favorite part of the Doge Palace is the Bridge of Sighs, which connects the palace with the new prison cells next door. It is named because as prisoners were taken to their prison cell, they looked out the window of the Bridge of Sighs and sighed as they realized it was their last view of freedom before entering their cell. We went on the Secret Itineraries Tour, which I highly recommend. It takes you to rooms in the palace that visitors with normal entrance tickets would not see, including Casanova's two prison cells. The tour guide gave a lot more information about Casanova and other details of the palace. The times of the tours vary based on which language you would like the tour in. The address for the Doge's Palace is San Marco Square , 1 - 30124 Venice. The official ticket website is here:

Doge Palace Secret Itineraries Tour

Rialto Bridge

The famous Rialto Bridge is the oldest bridge that spans the Grand Canal. It is full of shops (very pricey shops!) . It is free to walk across the bridge, and it's one of the best places to take photos along the grand canal. It was built in 1588. It was designed by Antonio da Ponte, a Venetian architect who also worked on the rebuilding of the Doge Palace. The bridge is always open to walk across. It is located at Ponte de Rialto 5327 - 30124 Venezia.

Museo della Musica

Venice's music museum only costs 2 euro to visit. It is in San Maurizio Church. It is located at San Marco 2603 - 30124. It has a section dedicated to Vivaldi and his life, since Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678. But the most impressive item in the museum is a violin that was once owned & played by Vivaldi - in fact, it was his last violin that he owned, and it is the only violin of his in the world that is still being played today. They also have a Stradivarius cello that is also played by the orchestra in Venice. The museum is only a few minutes' walk from St. Mark's Square. It doesn't take long to look through the museum and is worth the 2 euro. Their official website is here:

Venice Music Museum

Murano

One of the close-by islands to Venice is Murano, which is famous for glass making. The glass factories used to be in Venice from the time of the middle ages, but in 1291 the factories were ordered to move to nearby Murano because of fear of fires in the many houses made from wood. Murano glass in many forms is available to purchase on Venice, but it was a lot of fun to ride a vaporetto over to Murano and see the glass factories and shops myself. We also visited the Murano Glass Museum. We got off the vaporetto at the Colonna stop so that we could walk all of Murano. You can easily walk from one end of the island to the other, although the northern end is mostly residential. We walked far enough that we were walking down paths between peoples' houses and gardens, and even a soccer field. We went to several little shops and purchased glass jewelry and even a glass nativity set. We noticed that the prices of the products were higher near the vaporetto stop and lower farther into the center of the island.

The Murano Glass Museum is near the Museo vaporetto stop. It opens at ten a.m. and closes at five p.m. It costs ten euro, or you can purchase a combination pass to both the Murano Glass Museum and the Burano Lace Museum for a total of twelve euro. We weren't going to Burano, so we just purchased the ten euro pass. The address of the glass museum is Fondamenta Giustinian 8, 30121, Murano. Their official website is here:

Museo del Vetro

You can reach Murano by riding vaporetto 4.2 from Fdte Nove to Murano in one direction, or going back on line 4.1. The vaporetto will stop at Cimitero on the way to Murano. You can also ride lines 3, 12, or 13. I recommend taking the 4.2 to Murano and the 4.1 back because it gives you the most choices of where to get off.

Minich Bridge

Ponte Minich is a bridge between Calle Trevisan and Calle Bressana. I went looking for it in Venice because I wanted to see the site where Mission Impossible 7 was filmed, and a filming site listed Minich Bridge. I found the bridge, and immediately knew it was not really the bridge used in the movie. But standing on Minich Bridge, I looked over and saw the bridge that was used. In fact, I compared a photo from the movie that showed the exact same background. The real bridge used in Mission Impossible is called Ponte dei Conzafelzi.

The Palazzo Tetta is in the background behind the bridge in Mission Impossible 7 when Ilsa dies

Ponte dei Conzafelzi is located at 30100 Venice. This website talks about the history of the bridge:

Conzalfelzi Bridge

This exact same bridge was also used for the filming of Spiderman Far From Home. Read about it on this website:

Conzalfelzi Bridge in Spiderman Far From Home

Concerts in Venice

We attended a concert of Vivaldi's Four Seasons at the Scuola Grande San Teodoro. This old church is close to the Rialto Bridge. The official website for these concerts is here:

I Musici Veneziani

We purchased our tickets for 65 euro each for the first three rows of the Capitoline Hall. There are also less expensive tickets that are further back. The performers dress in period costumes. Ours included an orchestra of five people playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons with a soloist, as well as select other pieces with a soprano opera soloist. I had never been to a concert where the performers dressed in period clothing, and I quite enjoyed it. The same night there was also another performance of the Four Seasons at a different venue in Venice. If you'd like to attend a concert on one of your nights in Venice, which I highly recommend, simply google "concerts in Venice" and an array of options will come up. That is how I found our concert.

This is what I wrote about my trip to Venice in 2018:

During our trip to Italy in 2018, we were probably the most excited to visit Venice! Our flight landed in Venice so that became my first experience with Italy. Venice ended up being my favorite city that we visited on that trip. James keeps saying that the reason it wasn't smelly, like we'd been told it would be, is because we had cooler weather and some rain. That may be, but in any case, I loved it! I loved riding around the city in vaporetto, I found it very relaxing. I loved seeing all of the historical buildings. Venice is a floating museum. Before the trip, my friend brought me a bunch of books about Italy. I had read all about Venice and the places we would be seeing. I had also been watching lots of movies filmed in Italy. I was excited to see the different places where Dan Brown's Inferno was filmed in Venice (that's one of my favorite movies). I was excited to eat dinner on St. Mark's Square and hear the battling orchestras at each of the different cafes. We arrived in Venice on April 30th and left on May 1st. We visited St. Mark's Square, climbed the Campanile, toured the Doge's Palace and St Mark's Basilica, and walked across the Rialto Bridge. We saw the Horses of St Mark's and the Moors banging the bell of the clock tower. We ate at the oldest cafe in the world. I was really looking forward to Venice, and it didn't disappoint!

Helpful Links:

City Pass

Doge's Palace

St. Mark's Basilica

The Airbnb where we stayed in Venice

The Airbnb that we stayed in was near the vaporetto stop "Tre Archi" which had 3 bridges close together like these in this photo.

walking to our Airbnb

Our Airbnb was pretty dated and smelled funny, but it was clean. The worst part about it was that we didn't realize we had to turn the hot water heater up ourselves, so James and I both took a cold shower before Micah figured out how to work the water heater and turned it up so he and Jancy had hot showers. Also, there weren't silverware in the drawers and we had bought yogurt for breakfast. But, the location was really good, so there were trade-offs. Still, if I went there again I'd probably try a different Airbnb or maybe try out one of the very pricey hotels in Venice.

All the toilets in Italy looked different from each other.

I loved seeing all of the unique things as we rode down the Grand Canal.

We saw lots of gondolas. They cost $80-100 per ride so we didn't ever ride one, but I was tempted...

The Bridge of Sighs is behind us. The Doge's Palace connects to the prison by the Bridge of Sighs. It's said that as the prisoners were walked from the Doge's Palace over to the prison they took one last look out the window on the bridge and sighed as they were losing their freedom. We were able to walk across the bridge and look out the window also. And we sighed.

This is Rialto Bridge. It is the most famous and oldest bridge in Venice. There are shops on either side of the bridge.

This is St Mark's Basilica behind us.

The Grand Canal headed toward Rialto Bridge.

James and I on St Mark's Square with the Basilica in the background.

The orchestra at the cafe we ate at.

Micah and Jancy deciding what to order.

This is someone's garage. People don't drive cars on the island of Venice. If they drive over from the main land, they park at the train station or bus station and ride the vaporetto. A few people have their own boats but you don't really need one if you use public transportation. I bought passes for us to ride all of the vaporetto for the full time we were there.

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore.

Victor Emmanuel II Monument

The Campanile Tower on St Mark's Square. We paid to ride to the top of the tower. There are beautiful views of Venice from the top. The tower was built in the twelfth century. It collapsed in 1902 and was rebuilt in 1912.

St Mark's Basilica

Some of the artwork on the basilica

St Mark's Square - always crowded with tons of people.

One of the cafes with orchestra on St Mark's Square

St Mark's Basilica

Micah & Jancy on St Mark's Square

St Mark's Square. The two "Moors" (bronze figures at the top of the bell tower) still strike the bell on the hour (since the fifteenth century). We made sure to be on the square when they were striking the bell so we could see it.

The Campanile Tower

The cello player in the orchestra at our cafe

We are standing on the Rialto Bridge.

There are lots of pigeons on St Mark's Square.

Another cafe with orchestra

Venice is famous for their glass from the island Murano. This is a shop selling jewelry made of Murano glass.

Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute

This is the short little toilet in the restaurant we ate at.

We ate pizza here, a pizza place off the Rialto bridge.

The Rialto Bridge

This is the grocery store where we bought breakfast.

The Accademia Bridge

The train station

We paid the train station to store our bags for the day. Since we were moving to new cities every day, we couldn't leave our bags in our room while we toured the cities. So we ended up leaving them at train stations a lot.

Waiting at a vaporetto stop to get on a vaporetto.

Riding the vaporetto. We spent lots of time riding down the Grand Canal, and once we rode around the island to the other side of the Grand Canal also.

St Mark's Square

Some of the ornate decoration on the Doge's Palace

The Courtyard in the Doge's palace. The Doge was the supreme authority of Venice.

View from the Campanile.

View of the courtyard in the Doge's palace

One of the ceilings inside the Doge's Palace

Weapons in Doge's Palace

A hall inside the Doge's Palace

Looking out the window inside the Bridge of Sighs

The window in the Bridge of Sighs

The prison attached to the Doge's Palace

These are all more views of Venice from the Campanile tower

view of St Mark's Basilica from the Campanile

The bell in the Campanile

Micah pretending to make a phone call from the top of the Campanile

St. Mark's Basilica

The Treasury in St Mark's

Replicas of the bronze Horses of St Mark's are outside the basilica, but the originals are inside.

These are the original Horses of St Mark's (fourth century)

These are the horses used in the Inferno movie. In the background you can see the Moors and their bell in the clock tower.

View of St Mark's from the Basilica

The Moors

View from the Basilica with the Grand Canal in the background

The horses were stolen from Constantinople after the Crusades. They were taken by Napoleon in the 1700s and then returned to Venice in the 1800s.

This is a vaporetto. They are like floating buses and are the main source of transportation in Venice.

Our lunch spot in Venice.

The best spots on the Vaporetto are in the front of the back because inside you are looking out windows so you can't see as well. It takes about 45 minutes to ride from one end of the Grand Canal to the other end. The train and bus stations are on one end and St Mark's Square is on the other end. We would get on the vaporetto and wait for spots in the back to open up, and then just sit and relax and watch Venice float by.