We spent three days exploring the iconic city of Venice. There are plenty of interesting buildings in Venice and I’m sure visiting them would be interesting. But for me, Venice is all about the canals. From the moment we touched down at the airport and took a water taxi (Vaporetto) to the hotel, I was smitten. We did actually visit St Mark’s and take a glimpse of some of Venice’s other key buildings. But most of our time in Venice was spent cruising the aforementioned canals. That, in my opinion, is how to have a city break in Venice…
How to get to Venice
We have all seen iconic pictures of the floating city of Venice, but if you’re unsure of the exact geography, Venice is the capital of the Veneto region, which consists of 118 islands in the Venetian Lagoon, just off mainland Italy.
Marco Polo Airport is on the mainland overlooking the lagoon. You can, theoretically, get to Venice by bus from here. Buy why would you? We travelled by water taxi, so our first sight of Venice was from the water.
Venice also has a train station, which is reached via a bridge from the mainland. Venezia Santa Lucia station dates back to 1860 and required the demolition of the Church of Santa Lucia, which is where the station gets its name.
Getting Around Venice
The unique thing about Venice, obviously, is that the main form of transport is by boat. There are several Vaporetti routes, running around and between the various islands. A single trip costs €8. Alternatively, passes are available for 24, 48 or 72 hours and cost between €40 and €80. We purchased a 24 hour pass and attempted to follow every route on the the network, some more than once. Note: The pass doesn’t include travel to and from the airport, which costs €15 and has to be purchased separately.
Where to stay in Venice
We stayed at the spectacular Hotel American-Dinesen, situated in a 17th century town house on a canal just off the Grand Canal. The interior is opulently decorated with Murano mirrors and light fittings.
Hotels on Venice aren’t cheap. If you want to save money, you can stay on the mainland and take a bus, train or water taxi to the islands. Personally, I thought the extra expense was well worth it. Particularly in summer when it’s hot. We didn’t waste any time commuting back and forth. And it was convenient to break the day in two and return to our room for a blast of air conditioning followed by a cooling Bellini on the roof garden mid afternoon.
Venice in 3 Days Itinerary
| Day 1 | Travel to Venice Grand Canal Accommodation – Hotel American-Dinesen Church of San Georgio Maggiore Pizza for Dinner |
| Day 2 | St Mark’s Square St Mark’s Campanile St Mark’s Basilica Doge’s Palace Bridge of Sighs Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo Lido |
| Day 3 | Riding the Vaporetti Accademia Bridge Rialto Bridge Scalzi Bridge Constitution Bridge Arsenale Cimitero Burano Murano Pizza for Dinner Sunset Cruise |
Venice Day 1
Usually, getting from the airport to your destination is a necessary drag before your holiday can get properly started. Not so in Venice, where it’s all part of the experience.
Travel to Venice
From the airport, follow the signs for Vaporetti (water taxis), which take you along a covered walkway to the dock. The 70 minute trip across the Lagoon cost €15 and was one of the highlights of our trip. There are also private water taxis which are faster but far more expensive (over €100).
Our first glimpse of Venice was as the Doge’s Palace and the Bell Tower of St Mark’s came into view. What a sight!
Grand Canal
The Vaporetto ride across the Venetian Lagoon brings you to the mouth of the Grand Canal, which was every bit as spectacular as I’d imagined.
We disembarked our Vaporetto and walked the remainder of the way to our hotel. (Note, if you’re not a cheapskate and take a private taxi, many Venice hotels have their own dock and you can travel door to door.) We didn’t, instead we walked over another Venetian icon; Accademia Bridge.
Accommodation – Hotel American-Dinesen
Upon arrival at Hotel American-Dinesen, we were told there had been a booking mix up. Pros and cons. The con; we had to split our three night stay across two different rooms. The pro; the first night would be in a suite. As I already mentioned, we’re cheapskates, we would never book a suite, especially somewhere as expensive as Venice, so this was an added bonus. I was so excited about our suite with its living area and mezzanine level bedroom that I forget to take a photo. Here’s one I stole from the hotel’s website.
For the second part of our stay, we were moved to a fabulously ornate room complete with a huge Murano glass mirror. Equally excited, I managed a rather blurry photograph of said mirror.
Once we had checked in to our luxurious canal view suite, luxuriated some more, and cooled off a little, we set forth for our first Venetian wander and in search of dinner.
Church of San Georgio Maggiore
As it was already fairly late when we reached Venice, we didn’t venture far on our first day, just a walk round the local area culminating at the Church of San Georgio Maggiore.
The Canale Della Guidecca runs along the south of the Venice. On the opposite bank is the tiny island of Giorgio Maggiore. Here, you can find the majestic 16th Century Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, reminiscent of a Roman Temple. It was shut by the time we arrived, but we got to admire the architecture and the view across the lagoon nonetheless.
Pizza for Dinner
Finding a decent pizzeria in Venice is like shooting fish in a barrel, so we just chose a random restaurant which appeared to be pretty busy and took a table for pizza. And wine. Quite a lot of wine in fact…
Venice Day 2
On our first full day in Venice, we decided to start with the iconic St Mark’s. There’s quite a lot to do here; there’s St Mark’s Square, St Mark’s Basilica and St Mark’s Campanile.
First, the walk from the hotel to St Mark’s Square, which involved walking across 7 of Venice’s 391 bridges, all chock-a-block with gondolas. We decided gondola riding wasn’t for us. But if you want the experience, prices start at €90 for 30 minutes, rising to €110 after 7 pm.
St Mark’s Square
After a sweltering walk in the July sunshine, we reached the enormous St Mark’s Square, surrounded by ornate buildings and lined with cafes.
St Mark’s Campanile
We started by ascending St Mark’s Campanile for a view across Venice and beyond. At 99 metres tall, the bell tower is Venice’s highest structure. Not surprisingly, the view is spectacular. Don’t worry, there’s a lift!
From the top, you also get an impressive bird’s eye view of the domed Basilica roof.
The Bell Tower is open daily from 9.30 am until 9.15 pm. Tickets cost €10.
St Mark’s Basilica
The queue to enter Saint Mark’s Basilica was very long and not particularly enjoyable in the searing July heat. But we made it to the front eventually.
My sleeveless top was deemed as exposing too much flesh and I had to purchase a blanket to cover it up. And that’s no fun in July! Wrapped in my blanket and cooking nicely, we entered the enormous basilica. It was built in the 9th century to house the remains of St Mark, which Venetian merchants allegedly got their hands on. For 1000 years it was the Doge’s private chapel. The interior is very grand with copious amounts of gold.
An unusual aspect of St Mark’s is that you can exit onto a roof area for more great views of Venice, plus the opportunity to see some of the Basilica’s mosaics and stone work up-close. More Venetian plundering can be seen here with the Loggia dei Cavalli; four brass horses originally from Constantinople. Actually, they’re replicas, the originals are inside in the museum.
The Basilica is open daily from 9.30 am (2 pm on Sunday) until 5.15 pm. Tickets cost €3. Online tickets cost €6 and enable you to skip the line. Extra entry fees are required for the Treasury (€5) and the Museum/Loggia dei Cavalli (€7).
Doge’s Palace
The Doge’s Palace, the residence of the Doge (similar to a prince) of Venice was built 700 years ago. The queue to get in was almost as long as at the Basilica. And it costs €30. We decided we weren’t up to another queue in the sweltering heat (or parting with €60) to visit a palace. So, we made do with taking some photos of the exterior of the colonnaded 14th century pink and white palace, which looks like it ought to be plonked on the top of a wedding cake.
The Doge’s Palace is open daily from 9 am until 7 pm (6 pm in winter). Tickets cost €30 (reduced to €25 if you book online at least 30 days in advance).
Bridge of Sighs
On the side of the Palace is the iconic Bridge of Sighs. This white limestone bridge got its name because it connects the prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace.
Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo
We returned to our hotel, via the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo. It’s not one of Venice’s most popular attractions (maybe because it’s quite fiddly to find) and we couldn’t go in. But I had seen photos of it and was intrigued by its ornate spiral staircase – like something Rapunzel might have tossed her hair down from?
The staircase is open daily from 10 am until 6 pm in summer (9.30 am until 5.30 pm in winter). Entry costs €9.
Lido
It was such a hot day and ironically, for an island, in Venice there’s not really any actual water where you can take a dip. In the afternoon, we decided to take a Vaporetto across the lagoon to the island of Lido. This 7 mile long sliver of island faces the lagoon to the west, where the water taxi drops you. You can then walk across the island to the east coast which faces the Adriatic Sea.
We disembarked the Vaporetto and walked along the Granville Santa Maria Elisabetta to reach the other coast. It was hot, but the road is lined with bars, stores and, most importantly, ice cream vendors. Suitably cooled, we continued on our way to the beautifully manicured beach.
The catch in our cunning plan to keep cool, was that we then had an hour long walk/boat/walk journey back to the hotel again, during which time we got extremely hot and sweaty. We stopped at a supermarket en route and purchased some Bellinis to drink on the hotel’s roof terrace.
Day 3
Today, we purchased a 24 hour Vaporetti pass and set forth to explore the canals of Venice and its neighbouring islands.
Riding the Vaporetti
Most of the seats on the Vaporetti are covered. In my opinion, the best views are from the uncovered seats at the back, but this entails embarking quickly and fighting small children for the coveted seats. And breathing in a lot of diesel fumes from the engines.
We decided to start with a trip along the length of the Grand Canal, then a circumnavigation of the island, and finally a trip to the neighbouring islands of Burano and Murano. First up, a trip along the Grand Canal. Lines 1 and 2 pass through the canal, with Line 1 terminating near the station and Line 2 carrying on round the island.
Accademia Bridge
There are four bridges across the Grand Canal. We were already familiar with the Accademia Bridge because it was close to our hotel. Now it was time to sail underneath this wooden bridge dating from the 1930s. It was supposed to be a temporary structure, while a competition was held to design a more permanent bridge, but almost a century later, it is still there…
Rialto Bridge
The next bridge is Rialto Bridge, by far the oldest of the four bridges. The 16th Century stone bridge is adorned with stone reliefs depicting St Mark and St Theodore on the north side and the Annunciation on the other. When we visited, most of it was covered due to construction work, which they helpfully hung a picture of the bridge over the top of.
We passed underneath the bridge, then hopped off in order to explore further.
The bridge was well packed with souvenir sellers and tourists. To be honest, it’s best viewed from the water.
Scalzi Bridge
We picked up another Vaporetto and worked our way the length of the island, under the Scalzi Bridge; a stone arch bridge dating from the 1930s.
Constitution Bridge
Alighting again at the end of the canal, close to the railway station and Venice’s fourth and final bridge; Constitution Bridge. Venice’s most modern bridge opened in 2008, with its modern design a cause for controversy.
Having completer our trip along the Grand Canal, next was a circumnavigation of the island. Line No 4 goes all the way round, giving you the chance to view Venice and its environs in all their splendour.
Arsenale
Arsenale is a complex of former shipyards and armouries, which date back as far as the 12th Century. I really wanted to take a photo of the gap in the fortified walls giving you a glimpse into Arsenale, but I was too slow. So, we decided to go round the island again. Luckily, I caught it second time, as I’m not sure the old man would have agreed to a round three!
You can’t usually visit the interior of this huge medieval shipyard. We had to make do with the glimpse through the bridge at the grandeur beyond. Once I was happy with my photo, we disembarked and took a walk along the path which runs along the exterior of the crenelated walls.
Cimitero
Back onto another Vaporetto for a ride to the neighbouring islands of Burano and Murano. First, we passed the tiny island of Cimitero, where the dead of Venice are buried.
Burano
The little island of Burano is famous for its colourful houses and its lace making.
Murano
Murano is renowned for its glass, which is in evidence everywhere. From glass sculptures in the square to glass shops lining the canal and glass blowing demonstrations in nearby workshops. It’s all about the glass.
We took a wander round the island, admiring all the glass.
After stopping to watch a glass blowing demonstration (quite a feat in the sweltering heat), I went in search of a piece of Murano glass as a souvenir of our trip. There’s some really fancy work on display with some really large price tags, but I settled on a small seagull.
Pizza for Dinner
In the evening, we managed what we believed to be unmanageable – bad pizza in Italy. We chose the restaurant at random, but a quick check of Trip Advisor told us we’d picked almost the worst ranked pizzeria in Venice. We waited ages for food to be delivered, then when it came it was burnt. But the beer was cold and the restaurant had seating on a platform overlooking the Grand Canal, so the view was pretty special.
Sunset Cruise
Then, just to squeeze our money’s worth out of our Vaporetti tickets, we returned to our hotel the long way round with our own little cruise around Venice at sunset.
Venice was a real blast. Hot, extremely crowded and very expensive, but totally living up to the not inconsiderable hype.
- Trip taken: July 2015
- Updated: June 2025
I hope you found the above information useful. For guides to more destinations in the 50+ countries we have visited, check out my full list of Independent Travel Itineraries here.
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