Venice a unique place that you should visit at least once in your life. The romantic gondolas floating on the canals, walking through the small streets and drinking a way too expensive Spritz al Select. There is much to do in this cosy city.
Sleeping in Venice is quite expensive but they say it’s once in a lifetime. You can also sleep outside the city center of Venice and easily take the bus into the city. A bit outside Venice there is also a campsite with affordable prices. There are many buses driving from near the campsite into the city. During the summer it can get hot, around 30 degrees Celsius, so perfect to go camping.
Tip: drink a Spritz al Select in Venice. It’s the Venetian version of Spritz Aperol, so try it out!
Must do in Venice
- Discover the streets and squares
- Ride with a Gondola
- Grand Canal
- Rialto Bridge
- Piazza San Marco
- Saint Mark’s Basilica
- Doge’s Palace
- Libreria Acqua Alta di Frizzo Luigi
- Bridge of Sighs
- Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute
- Burano
You can’t enter Venice with a car, all the big streets are water canals. If you want to park in the city, you can park your car at the entrance of the city in this parking, where all the busses stop.
However, if you’re looking to save some money, you can park just outside the city in this parking. From there you can take a bus which takes you as far as the other parking. To be clear you need to know that there are no cars allowed in Venice. The only transport you will find here are bikes and boats. You discover this city by foot or water taxis and water busses.
Walking around is the best way to discover Venice. You need to wander around in all the small streets and explore the beautiful canals, bridges and squares by getting lost. I challenge you to walk around for a few hours without a map or GPS, this is the best way to enjoy Venice. Since it’s so small you can’t really get lost!
If you want to do a gondola ride, you don’t need to worry about the prices because there are fixed prices. Everywhere in Venice they ask the same price. It’s 80 euros or 100 euros (as of 2019) depending on how long the ride lasts. It’s a unique experience to do in Venice.
Fact: you pay a lot extra in a restaurant or bar than what’s on the menu, because they charge extra services. Also, if you sit at a table in a bar, you pay more than when you drink something at the counter.
Tip: Bar Da Fiore is a small bar with cheap drinks. The Spritz is €3 if you sit at a table, otherwise it’s €2,5 (2019). They only speak Italian but they have Spritz al Select, which is the Venetian version of Aperol Spritz.
The Rialto bridge is an amazing bridge that connects two parts of the city. It’s the oldest bridge, out of the 4 bridges, that is spanning the Grand Canal in Venice. It’s really impressive, the first construction was in the 12th century as a pontoon bridge and it has been rebuilt several times since then.
San Marco square is a busy touristic square and we understand why. There is a beautiful basilic on this square. The architecture of this building is so stunning. If you wake up early you have this square almost all to yourself.
Tip: go at 7am to the San Marco square and watch how the city comes to life.
Libreria Acqua Alta di Frizzo Luigi is a MUST DO! This is a bookstore with a lot of books inside and awesome decoration outside. Just go look for yourself, and maybe you’ll find a good book. The books are kept in floatable objects, like a gondola or a bathtub, so that in case of a flood, the books are kept dry.
Bridge of sighs, they say that sentenced prisoners used to walk over this bridge and they sighed when they passed through the enclosed bridge because they had one last glimpse on the beauty of the lagoon. Ponte dei Sospiri is the Italian name of the bridge of sighs and it connects Palazzo Ducale to the Priggione Nove, New Prisons, from the 16th century.
Tip: there are a lot of shops where you can buy beautiful masks but watch out because some are handmade, like how they used to make it Venetian style, and some are just plastic (from China or…). You can see and feel the difference.
A beautiful fishers island close to Venice is Burano. There are several ferries running between Venice and Burano, so if you’re spending several days in Venice, it might be worth a visit.
