Venice
How to Get Around Venice
Arriving in Venice
Venezia Santa Lucia railway station opens directly onto the historic centre. Marco Polo Airport connects with Piazzale Roma by road bus and with Venice by separate water services. Airport journeys are not included in every urban transport ticket, so check the operator and fare before buying a pass.
Walking and public water buses
Walking and ACTV public water buses are the main ways to move through the historic centre. A vaporetto is a scheduled public service; a water taxi is a private boat and costs substantially more. Tickets must be validated, and airport services, Alilaguna and some specialist routes have separate conditions.
As of September 2026, ACTV lists a €9.50 waterborne single fare and a €25 24-hour Venezia Daily Pass. Prices and inclusions can change, so verify them on the official ACTV website rather than relying on an older printed figure.
Accessibility
Stepped bridges make many walking routes difficult for wheelchair users and people with limited mobility. Some areas can be reached through accessible vaporetto stops, level routes, facilitated bridges or temporary ramps. The City of Venice's accessible map and itineraries provide more useful route-specific guidance than a general claim that the historic centre is accessible.
Connections from Venice
How easily, and at what cost, can you combine the region’s main destinations?
| Route | Best option | One-way time | Travel Smart take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Venice and Burano | BoatWater bus · Year-round | ~45 min typical, not a timetable | Comfortable as a day trip. |
| Venice and Chioggia | Bus, or boat and businexpensive | ~1 hr by road | Comfortable as a day trip. |
| Venice and Cortina d'Ampezzo | Bus or carmoderate cost | ~2 hr by road | Better as a separate stay than a day trip. |
| Venice and Giudecca | BoatWater bus · Year-round | ~5 min typical, not a timetable | Excellent day-trip connection. |
| Venice and Lido | BoatWater bus · Year-round | ~15 min typical, not a timetable | Excellent day-trip connection. |
| Venice and Mestre | Train | ~10 min typical, not a timetable | Excellent day-trip connection. |
| Venice and Murano | BoatWater bus · Year-round | ~15 min typical, not a timetable | Excellent day-trip connection. |
| Venice and Padua | Traininexpensive | ~25–50 min typical, not a timetable | Excellent day-trip connection. |
| Venice and Torcello | BoatWater bus · Year-round | ~50 min typical, not a timetable | Comfortable as a day trip. |
| Venice and Treviso | Traininexpensive | ~30–40 min typical, not a timetable | Excellent day-trip connection. Venice is a workable base for Treviso. |
| Venice and Verona | Traininexpensive | ~1 hr 10 min–1 hr 30 min typical, not a timetable | Comfortable as a day trip. Venice is a workable base for Verona. |
Cost compares the options for each route rather than quoting a fare: inexpensive means the price is not a factor in planning, moderate cost means a real line in the budget, and the expensive option is one worth weighing against the alternative. Fares change from year to year; the ranking between them does not.
Why walking beats the boat
The historic centre is about two kilometres across and almost entirely walkable, and for most journeys inside it the vaporetto is slower than going on foot. Boats follow the canals, which take the long way round by definition, and then you still have to walk from the stop. The exceptions are worth knowing: the length of the Grand Canal, any trip with luggage, and the crossing to the lagoon islands.
The cost of walking is bridges. There are around four hundred of them and most are stepped, which is what makes Venice difficult rather than merely tiring for anyone with a wheeled case, a pushchair or limited mobility.
The lagoon islands are the reason to buy a pass
A day pass rarely pays for itself inside the centre, because you will not take enough boats. It pays for itself the day you go out into the lagoon -- Murano, Burano and Torcello in one run, which is a full day and several separate services.
That trip is also the best argument for going north at all: the northern lagoon is where the water opens out, the crowds thin within twenty minutes of leaving the city, and the settlements are working islands rather than extensions of the centre.
Arriving, and the hard edge at Piazzale Roma
Every road approach ends at the same place. The causeway carries the railway from 1846 and the road from 1933, and both stop at the western tip of the city: cars and coaches at Piazzale Roma, trains a few minutes away at Santa Lucia, which opens straight onto the Grand Canal.
The consequence for anyone driving is that the car has to be parked and left -- there is nowhere further to take it. Many visitors do better leaving the car on the mainland at Mestre and coming the last stretch by train, which is frequent and takes about ten minutes.
The airport is a separate system
Marco Polo sits on the mainland edge of the lagoon and connects two different ways: by road bus to Piazzale Roma, and by water directly across the lagoon to the historic centre. They are run by different operators, cost different amounts and take very different times.
The trap is fares. Airport services are generally not covered by an ordinary urban transport pass, and the water routes are a separate purchase again -- so a pass bought on arrival may not cover the journey you bought it during. Check what a ticket includes before buying rather than after.
Acqua alta, and what it actually means now
High water is a seasonal feature, heaviest from autumn into early spring, and it is no longer the emergency it was. Since October 2020 the MOSE barriers have been raised when a tide above 1.30 metres is forecast, and they are used regularly rather than exceptionally.
What a visitor should still expect is disruption rather than danger: raised walkways on the main routes, some vaporetto stops moved or closed for a few hours, and a few hours of wet feet in the lowest parts of the city, of which Piazza San Marco is the lowest. Boots sold on the street are rarely necessary; checking the tide forecast the night before usually is.