The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

The Venice and Rolling Venice cards
Active sightseers might consider buying a Venice Card, which comes in two forms
and is valid for 12 hours, 48 hours or seven days, with a discount for the under-30s.
The blue card (12hr e18.50, e16.50 with discount; 48hr e34/e31; 7-day e56/e53)
gives unlimited use of all ACTV public transport, and free access to some public
toilets, most usefully those at Piazzale Roma, Campo San Bartolomeo, the Piazza (off
the west side) and the Giardinetti Reali (by the tourist office). The orange card (12-hr
e30/e23; 48-hr e55/e46.50; 7-day e82/e72.50) in addition gives free access to all
the museums covered by the Museum Pass and the Chorus Pass (see p.41). For a
e23 supplement you can buy a version of the blue and orange cards that’s valid on
Alilaguna services to and from the airport. Note that children under 6 get free museum
entrance but only under-4s get free travel on public transport – so an orange card
for an under-six-year-old is a pointless investment. You can buy Venice Cards from
the tourist offices, the VeLa/ACTV offices at the airport, train station and Piazzale
Roma, and the Alilaguna desk at the airport. Alternatively, you can order the card a
minimum of 48 hours in advance on wwww.venicecard.it (which gives a discount
of up to e2.50) or by calling t899.909.090 (within Italy – it’s a free number) or
t00.39.041.2424 (from abroad). You will be given a code number which you will need
to present when you turn up to collect your ticket from any of the offices listed above.
If you’re aged between fourteen and twenty-nine, you are eligible for a Rolling
Venice card, which entitles you to discounts at some shops, restaurants, hostels,
campsites, museums, concerts and exhibitions, plus a discount on the 72-hour ACTV
travel pass; details are given in a leaflet that comes with the card. The card costs e5,
is valid until the end of the year in which it’s bought, and is worth buying if you’re in
town for at least a week and aim to make the most of every minute. The tourist offices
and ACTV/VeLa offices issue it, on production of a passport or similar ID.
venice: the Practicalities
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fuller information on special events, plus
extras such as vaporetto timetables; it used
to be available from the main tourist offices,
but is now distributed through upmarket
hotels – just ask for a copy at the reception
desk. For listings of nightlife and events the
bi-monthly Venezia da Vivere (wwww.veneziadavivere.it)
is useful, as is the bi-monthly
Leo Bussola, which also publishes interesting
articles (in Italian and English) on the city;
both are available free from the tourist offices,
but they tend to run out of stock quickly. The
fullest source of information, though, is VE:
News (e2.20), which is published on the first
day of each month and is sold at newsstands
all over the city; it has good coverage of exhibitions,
cultural events, bars and restaurants,
with a fair amount of text presented in English
as well as Italian.
City transport
Venice has two interlocking street systems
– the canals and the pavements – and,
contrary to what you might expect, you’ll be
using the latter for most of the time. With the
exceptions of the #1 and #82 and a couple
of other peak-hours services which cut
through the city along the Canal Grande, the
water-buses skirt the city centre, connecting
points on the periphery and the outer
islands. In many cases the speediest way of
getting around is on foot – you don’t have to
run, for instance, to cover the distance from
the Piazza to the Rialto Bridge quicker than
the #1 boat. Distances between major sights
are sometimes tortuous but extremely short
(you can cross the whole city in an hour),
and once you’ve got your general bearings
you’ll find that navigation is not as daunting
as it seems at first. Helpful yellow signs
posted high up on street corners all over
central Venice indicate the main routes to
San Marco, Ferrovia (train station) and Rialto.
Water-buses
A water-bus is the quickest way of getting
between far-flung points, and even in cases
where it might be quicker to walk a canal trip
might be the more pleasant way of covering
the distance. The lack of clear numbering
on many of the boats is confusing at first,
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