vaporetto

bridge in venice

Out walking, first morning in Venice

My number one tip for Venice things to do? Walk.  Take a break from maps, guidebooks and lineups, and simply wander the streets.

Leave your list of “must see” buildings behind in the hotel. If you happen to stumble across one of the big attractions in your wanders and the lineup is not bad, pop in and have a look.  Otherwise, just keep walking!  There are plenty of things to do in Venice that don’t involve spending money or waiting in lineups. Simply seeing the canals, bridges, old buildings, shops and sidewalk cafes is enough to keep you delighted for days, if not weeks.

Venice is smaller than you might think. You could walk the winding paths from the train station to San Marco (which is pretty much the length of the city) in about an hour.  Or ride the Number 82 vaporetto full circuit to enjoy and appreciate the myriad wonders of the city on the lagoon.

See the “must see” points of interest if you wish, but if you miss them, don’t worry! There are lots of surprises around every corner, over every bridge and in every shop window. The Venetians are friendly, the bakeries are incredible and it is impossible to take a bad photo there.

There is so much to see and absorb simply walking the streets of Venice that if you never even go inside a building your time will still be well spent. I would even venture to say that your time might be better spent walking the neighbourhoods – but I would say that because it’s one of my favorite Venice things to do!

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Vaporetto ride at night (flickr: lorenzocuppini)

Vaporetto ride at night (flickr: lorenzocuppini)

One of my favorite Venice things to do is a vaporetto (water bus) tour on the Grand Canal.
On Day 2, before we went out to dinner, we spent a couple of hours doing just that. A Grand Canal vaporetto tour is a great budget alternative to the traditional gondola ride. (Riding the vaporetto costs only a couple of  euros, while a gondola ride costs over 100 euros. )

All we had to do was hop on the #1 vaporetto and ride it all the way down to the end of the line, which happened to be a couple of stops past St. Mark’s Square. Then we got off and hopped on one coming back.

It was beyond belief to ride down the Grand Canal with it all lit up at night. It was a beautiful, warm evening and we were lucky enough to get seats outdoors at the front, the very first seats. We were sitting there, our arms on the railing,  motoring along the Grand Canal, looking at all the amazing buildings all lit up, watching the other boats going by. It was absolutely incredible; an evening I will never forget.

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