Venice in march - any tips please???

breadlinebetty

Does anyone have any tips on good traditional restaurants restaurants that aren't HUGELY expensive? Any other tips too would be appreciated!:o Sightseeing must do, things to avoid, things to buy/not to buy etc.....

Thanks ever so!

foomanchu

There’s lots to see for free just by walking around. Get apublic transport pass to ride the Grand Canal, or to see other islands.

Wander into the residential areas for cheap restaurants. We hadgreat pizza by a little canal this way.

Buy glass sweet shaped souvenirs from Murano.

CountryGoose

Pizza Here: http://www.pizzeriaallanfora.com/home.html Not far from the station.

Boat Tips (ACTV Vaporetto). The fares for single boat trips are wallet shrinkingly expensive! Even buying a pass will cost you dear. So - work out when you want to use the boat and pack your trips into a 24/36/48 hour block. Remember, a 48 hour ticket bought late on Friday will still see you travelling most of Sunday - so buy what you need and exploit it. (If you are mobile, you can walk around most of Venice easily - you only need the boat for islands and the Lido and, maybe, a cruise up the Grand Canal). Boat rides do keep kids amused, though.

If you want to be sure of a seat on many of the services you'll find that they originate at the Piazzale Roma, which is just a short walk from the Station, over the bridge. Take the walk and be among the first on, or, if you already have a pass, take a boat from the station and back-track!. During the day the ticket queues can also be shorter here - you can also buy tickets from some tobacconists.

Route one is a great cruise down the Grand Canal back to the hotel - get on at the Lido if you want to be sure of a seat at the back.

Dunroamin

I disagree about the cost of travel in Venice and found the fares very reasonable if buying one of the cards. Travelling around the lagoon away from the regular tourist sights is a wonderfully inexpensive way to see the city.

http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/venice-vaporetto-and-bus-fare-tables.htm

s_b

take a brolly

VfM4meplse

Dunroamin wrote: »

I disagree about the cost of travel in Venice and found the fares very reasonable. Travelling around the lagoon away from the regular tourist sights is a wonderfully inexpensive way to see the city.

From memory it was about EUR24 for a 48 hour pass. - I thought that was expensive but did make use of it as I was based in Lido.

Piazza San Marco is lovely, but even a cup of coffee will cost you a small fortune so head further in. The 3 main sights are in the square though. As foomanchu said, it's a great destination to walk around, a real feast for the senses and part of the fun is getting lost in the myriad of streets. If you want to buy souvenirs, don't buy from the first shop you see - there is a myriad, and you will always find a cheaper price the further in you move.

Murano glass is the quality glass, Ventian is not the same, and be aware that the really cheap offerings are probably from China. Public facilities are very few and far between (from memory they cost about EUR1.80) so you are better off nit losing an opportunity whenever you stop for a drink (or like me restrict intake ). A trip to Lido is nice in the summer to get away from the bustle of the city, but I doubt there will be anything much going on there in March.

Venice is stunning to begin with, romantic etc but it actually gets a bit boring if you spend more than 2 days there as apart from the galleries, churches etc there is not that much to do. Oh yes, don't expect much in the way of ethnic restaurants - they don't seem to exist in Italy! Pizza here is much better so seafood may be your best bet.

If you are an opera fan, register with Musica Palazzo in advance - I think it costs about EUR50 - and watch opera every evening!

CountryGoose

Dunroamin wrote: »

I disagree about the cost of travel in Venice and found the fares very reasonable if buying one of the cards. Travelling around the lagoon away from the regular tourist sights is a wonderfully inexpensive way to see the city.

http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/venice-vaporetto-and-bus-fare-tables.htm

€6.5 for a single trip makes the tube seem good value
€18 for a 24 hour ticket is not cheap in my book.

Also, no discount for kids 6 or over, other than a hard to find 3 day rover.

hxm

I'm going to Venice in March too, and found that you can get a good discount on the travel passes if booked at least 7 days in advance through

http://www.veniceconnected.com/node/1454

Read the instructions carefully, and note that they do not cover the transport to and from the airport, unless you purchase the add-on.

I know everybody says that you can easily walk everywhere in Venice, but that's besides the point. Cruising up and down the Grand Canal is surely one of the best ways to see Venice and if you have the travel pass you can get on and off as much as you want and visit the islands as well.

davidlizard

Agree that it is worth the trip up the Grand Canal on a Vaporetto - its worth backtracking a couple of stops so you get on the boat early before the masses and therefore bag a seat at the very front for great views.

It is also worth wandering around the alleyways - there are loads of hidden gems to discover. Try and pick up a decent map. Also they move the buildings around at night - because if you see a decent looking restaurant - no way will you find it the following evening!

General rule of thumb - the closer you get to St Marks Square, the more expensive stuff becomes.

For the airport - there are some very cheap bus services that will take you into Venice.

You can (or could) pre-book the Doges palace to avoid the queues.

Gondolas are very expensive, however if you must get one, then there are other places you can hire them apart from St Marks, and they will be much cheaper. Alternatively you can get a Traghetto (sp?) which for a euro or two will ferry you across the Grand Canal.

breadlinebetty

Thanks everyone for all your tips, much appreciated! Just a couple of more questions if you please:)

I was told not to buy Pizza in Venice as it isn't a Venetian food - and they don't know how to cook it well?:( Can't think why that would be? Was told it's the seafood, polenta, risotto, black ink egg pasta (?) and tiramisu they do best? Which kind of sounds darned expensive to me!:eek:

Also, what sort of prices are the house wines (full bottle) in a low/med/high price restaurant? Any wine recommendations?

We've bought a 72 hour water bus pass online, and will make use of it going up and down the Grand Canal a few times - I'd like to do an early morning trip (sunrise would be lovely but not sure what time they start operating?), daytime trip, and night time trip too. Also want to hop over to Dordoru (spelt that wrong I'm sure!:o), Murano, the Lido, and the other little island that's got all those pretty coloured houses (forgotten its name!)

We'll also hop on to just go to different parts of Venice, we're staying in San Marco - found a really good inexpensive deal! - so will use the water bus a lot.

Heard it's easy to get lost when walking - are there any tricks to help you find your way back? Was told it's a bit like maze!

One other thing, someone told me gondolas have seat belts (:cool:) they may have been teasing me......is that true or not? I didn't think many of the canals were even deep!

One more thing, can you bypass the queues with a prebooked water bus pass and walk straight onto the bus? I'm sure I read that somewhere.

The Murano glass - does it have any authenticity stamp or do shops who sell the genuine glass have some kind of official stamp? How about the actual glassblowers? I take it that's Murano glass or am I wrong on that too?

Thanks for all your help!:)

johnnyreggae

breadlinebetty wrote: »

Heard it's easy to get lost when walking - are there any tricks to help you find your way back? Was told it's a bit like maze!

The whole point is to explore by getting lost - there are sometimes signs on walls pointing towards major sites - if you ask the locals the way they will always reply sempre diritto - straight on - and it usually works

Food can be expensive or cheap depending on what it says on the menu outside - it may be local it may not - isn't that your choice ? There's always McDonalds