Venice travel info

Seven in the morning, and a boat stacked with crates slides under the Rialto Bridge. The boatman cuts the engine, noses up to the steps, and when the market trader lifts a crate down, mantis shrimp still twitching spill out of it. Deliveries, rubbish collection and ambulances all travel by water here. About 170 canals thread between the islands under more than 400 bridges, so even with a map you'll hit a dead end at the water's edge every third turn. That's half the fun of walking here.

Stand in Piazza San Marco and you get the gold-mosaic basilica, the bell tower and the lagoon slapping at the end of the square in one view. But Venice is at its best after dark, once the day-trippers have gone. You stand among locals at a bacaro (wine bar) by a Cannaregio canal with a spritz and a slice of bread topped with whipped salt cod, then wander home through unlit lanes. Riding a water bus the full length of the Grand Canal is sightseeing in itself.

Most visitors fly into Marco Polo airport, or into Rome or Milan and take the train. There isn't a single car in the island city: the airport bus drops you at Piazzale Roma, and from there you walk or take a boat. In 2026 day visitors paid an access fee on 60 days, mostly weekends between April and July, and from late autumn to spring the sea can spill into the squares at high tide (acqua alta). Know about those two and the water-bus fares, and you can learn the rest by getting lost.

Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)

Treviso Airport (Antonio Canova) (TSF)

Arriving by train: Venezia Santa Lucia (VSL)